CPO of land for new Virginia Waste Water Treatment Plant

Details of a Compulsory Acquisition of Land near Virginia to facilitate the development of a new €10M Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) for the town have been republished.

Uisce Éireann - formerly known as Irish Water - is seeking to acquire three separate plots of land in order to progress with plans to build the proposed new WWTP, a project included in the semi-state body's 2020 to 2024 investment plan.

They include a 0.0045 hectacre (0.011 acre) field/lake plot, a little more than the size of a large garden shed, in a field at Rahardrum, part of the former Headfort Estate, owned or reputedly owned by The Headfort Estate, care of Ronan Matthews, Virginia Estate Co, Mespil House, Sussex Road, Dublin.

The same set of ownership details apply to a 0.0045 field, also at Rahardrum.

The owner of the third plot advertised in the CPO is purportedly unknown. That covers a field/treatment site of 0.0474 hectares simply put as 'located at Virginia'. The lands are deemed by Uisce Éireann as other than that “consisting of a house or houses unfit for human habitation and not capable of being rendered fit for human habitation at reasonable expense”.

The CPOs are dated May 15.

The proposed new facility will be located just off the N3 in the townland of Rathardum, with a terminal pumping station off New Street.

Once operational, it will more than double current capacity in the area. The plant is considered essential to kickstart a fresh phase of housing development in the town, which had been stymied in recent years, over capacity constraints and concerns regarding the potential ecological threat posed to nearby Lough Ramor.

The full notice is published in this week's print edition of The Anglo-Celt.