Limerick rugby club to get extra pitch as part of land deal
A RUGBY club on the northside of Limerick city is to get an extension to its land after councillors approved an application.
Thomond Rugby Club will get the equivalent of a new playing pitch as part of the deal which was rubber-stamped at this month’s council meeting.
The land at Liam Fitzgerald Park in Ballygrennan measures a half-an-acre.
In exchange, the local authority will take ownership of three-acres elsewhere in the park.
Originally in private ownership, the council acquired the land, and is now selling it to the rugby club.
In a briefing note to councillors, head of property Jane Leahy said the additional land afforded to the club will provide additional training areas or a second rugby pitch.
The land originally belonged to homes at Craeval Park and Pineview Gardens on the edge of Moyross, which have long been demolished.
Three more homes along the edge of Thomond rugby club's grounds are in line for the bulldozer under the Limerick Regeneration programme.
Elsewhere, councillors green-lit the sale of 28 square metres of land near the Gas Networks Ireland site at Rosbrien Road, which is just outside the city centre.
The sale is being completed for the nominal fee of €1 and will allow the State company additional access to its site.
The Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board has requested extra land around the entrance and exit of one of its schools, St Brigid's National School near Childers Road.
To this end, council has acquired a strip of land from Claughaun GAA club, and will lease a part of it to the school's trustees for this purpose.
The remainder of the land is earmarked for the BusConnects project, designed to improve public transport in and around Limerick.
Meanwhile, councillors have approved the sale of a derelict site in Ballyclough Avenue at Castletroy to a private party for €241,000.
A derelict unit at Jesuit Lane in the city centre is being transferred to a developer.
A property at Drombanna which came into the council's lands under the Derelict Sites Act is being sold for €365,000. And a home at Inglenook in Bruff is to be sold for €90,000.
The transfer of land is one of the powers that councillors have, and in the past, they have exercised this to block certain sales from happening.