GAA stadium at Tralee racecourse site appealed

A PROPOSAL to build a new GAA stadium at Ballybeggan racecourse in Tralee, Co Kerry has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála.

The stadium is part of a wider proposal by John Casey Project Management for a neighbourhood centre consisting of four retail units, a convenience store, bar and 91 residential units.

The stadium would have a full size pitch and viewing stands and terracing to accommodate 9,000 people, match-day kiosks, hospitality suites, medical and function rooms, a media room, office block and 1,355 ancillary car-parking spaces. However, one appellant, Nora P King with an address at Clash West, Tralee, said she has concerns over its proposed location within the 41-hectare Ballybeggan Park.

She lives adjacent to the racecourse and her landholding has planning permission for 350 residential units which, she says, would be affected by the stadium.

She says the proposed stadium, which is on an elevated site at the southern end of the Ballybeggan development, will generate noise, pollution, litter, floodlighting will create glare and the stadium "will invite anti-social behaviour and will furthermore affect the visual amenity of the area". She also submitted an article by a member of Croke Park's Residents Association on the negative aspects of living near a GAA stadium.

She says Kerry County Council "instructed the developers not to locate the stadium at the northern side of the park as it would affect existing residential development there. Should this not apply also to the proposed residential development of my lands?"

Stating that 1,355 car-parking spaces is insufficient and would lead to nuisance and illegal parking "as already happens on match days with traffic emanating from the existing Austin Stacks stadium.

The proposed new stadium would be nearer to my property than the existing Austin Stacks park stadium."

Another appeal from Eddie Barrett, also from Tralee, asks that the stadium, town park and neighbourhood centre "be incorporated within the inner area of the racecourse so as not to interfere with the existing running rack".

The Irish Times

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