Rejection of Griffith College Cork's artificial pitch overturned by An Bord Pleanála
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A college in Cork has successfully appealed a planning rejection to retain an artificial sports pitch on campus amid claims of its negative impact on local biodiversity.
Griffith College Cork was refused retention permission by Cork City Council in February and was faced with the prospect of having to remove the artificial pitch. However, it has subsequently won its case after appealing to An Bord Pleanála.
Established in 1974, the college acquired the former Marymount Hospice’s five-acre campus on Wellington Road in 2013.
The site, which includes several 1800s buildings, some of which are protected structures, and a 1909-built chapel donated by the Honan family, overlooks the city.
Part of the site is a designated landscape preservation zone for tree canopy and ecology which means there is a presumption against development in the area. But in the summer of 2018, the college sparked anger when it cleared an area of urban forest behind its buildings.
In April 2019, it defended the move insisting that it had “cleaned up an area of land” by “removing up to a decade of overgrowth and up to six small trees”, and that it had consulted closely with local residents.
When considering the application for retention permission for its artificial pitch, a biodiversity report, which informed Cork City Council’s decision, said the pitch and the previous habitat of urban forest “could have existed beside one another” and provided habitats for the students to explore and for recreational use.
One of those who made a submission on the planning bid was Green Party councillor Oliver Moran, having previously lodged a planning enforcement complaint. Following Cork City Council’s decision, he said Griffith College should remove the pitch and restore the land to its former state.
“That would be in keeping with both the letter of, and the spirit of, the zoning of this area,” he said.
In refusing planning, Cork City Council said the proposed retention of the artificial grass pitch by way of its impact on biodiversity and ecology contravenes key objectives in its city development plan. However, the matter was appealed to An Bord Pleanála.
HW Planning, which filed a report along with the appeal, said the applicants were “disappointed with the manner in which Cork City Council” assessed the application and said its decision was “based on inaccurate misconception” concerning how the pitch impacted the landscape.
“There was no felling of trees to accommodate the subject development to be retained,” it said. “There is no basis to the primary position which underpinned the council’s refusal.
“The retention of the proposed development will not impact on biodiversity."
It also included letters of support from stakeholders such as a local school which uses the pitch. In its decision, An Bord Pleanála took a differing view from Cork City Council and granted permission.