Regional Sports Campus plans to seek permission in March

Detailed Design of multi-sport facility being finalised

The council is working with consultants to advance the detailed design of a new multi-million euro sports campus for Cavan Town.

The progress bodes well for the project with a formal planning application for the project expected to be lodged with An Bord Pleanála before the end of the first quarter of 2024.

The Celt understands that plans for the Regional Sports Campus will be submitted under Strategic Infrastructure Development.

To date just over €1 million has been spent on developing the campus plan, which is being delivered by Cavan County Council in partnership with Cavan GAA and the Royal School.

The funding was secured from the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF).

The planned phased project, which will see major development of adjacent lands, dovetails with Cavan GAA's own plans for a new state-of-the-art facility to be built at Kingspan Breffni.

Those major plans include three new grass pitches, floodlighting and a new covered stand for supporters on 24 acres of acquired land. The ambitious development will also see facilities extended to deliver eight new dressing rooms, an athletic development centre, meeting rooms, a kitchen/dining room and a video analysis room.

The regional sports campus, meanwhile, will be similar in scale to the already hugely successful Erne East Peace Link facility in Clones. It will incorporate 4G pitches for soccer and rugby; playing areas for basketball and hockey; facilities for both badminton and tennis, as well as athletics.

Later stages of development include plans for a competitive-sized swimming pool on site.

It’s estimated the new proposed sports campus plan could cost as much as €30M once the vision is fully realised.

“It's going well,” says Director of Services at Cavan County Council, Brendan Jennings, told the Celt this week of the progress being made at present.

With detailed design nearing completion, he added: “Obviously that's being done in partnership with Cavan GAA and the Royal School. Our ambition is to go to planning in early March. That will go directly to An Bord Pleanala. So we're fine tuning elements, finding agreements with our partners and trying to address issues like access roads, traffic counts and volumes, junction types, important elements. But most of the detailed design, in terms of going for planning, is done and ready.”

Sports capital funding

Meanwhile, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media last week announced it had welcomed a record number of applications under the Sports Capital & Equipment Programme 2023.

Applications under the 2023 round of the Programme closed in September, with 3,210 applications received, and a total of over €350m sought by all applicants.

This included more than 50 applications from Cavan alone, including local GAA clubs, soccer and rugby teams, schools, and kayaking, golf and more.

Among them were applications for Cavan Leisure Centre for new equipment, 3rd Virginia Scouting Group, Bailieborough Leisure Centre, and East Eagles Basketball Club.

A similar number of applications were received from clubs in neighbouring Monaghan; 144 applications from Meath; 28 in Longford; and 33 in Leitrim.

The programme is the Government’s primary vehicle for providing support to sports clubs and communities to develop sustainable sports infrastructure and increase active participation in sport around the country.

Minister Catherine Martin welcomed the level of interest saying: “This is the highest number of applications ever received which shows the continued importance and popularity of the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme. I want to thank all of the volunteers throughout the country who submitted applications on behalf of their clubs and communities.”