Summary of Meeting Held Tuesday 2022
Following an initial open forum meeting held in the Arches Hotel on 29/03/2022 it was agreed to hold a further meeting which was held on Tuesday 26 April in Coláiste Bhaile Chláir.
This was an open forum meeting which was advertised on Claregalway Info Facebook page.
The meeting was called to discuss the offer of approximately 10-11 acres of land to the Claregalway Community by Walter King of King Construction, to develop as a recreational space for the benefit of the Claregalway community. (Yellow Area in image attached)
Walter outlined to the meeting that;
The land would be handed over to a local community group and that the group should be decided by the local community. He had engaged a consultancy firm to look at options for its use, but suggested that the local community should feed into this and that the local community should decide what were the most appropriate facilities to include in this area (some sample suggestions in coloured image attached) — this is not the final suggestion rather just one suggestion. Walter outlined that he was working with others to ensure that the funding required to develop any facilities on the site would not have to be generated by the local community and that he has confident that funding could be secured for its eventual use. It was suggested by those members of the community present after Walter had left that;
An invite should be extended to all local community groups eg. All sports clubs, all youth groups, the business community, local schools, and anyone else people thought should attend to another meeting. It was suggested that advice should be sought as to what the best option would be for the handover of land and to whom, that should a new community group be established or should an existing group be identified.
It was suggested that a committee should be established alongside the entity to whom the land will be signed over to, to lead this project forward. A survey should be developed so all members of the local community could feed into the possible use and suggest ideas for how the area could be developed. A date will be set in the coming days for another meeting and it is hoped that the information here will give some clarity to the wider community as to the nature and content of the recent open forums. A link to a survey will also be posted to seek the communities views on how this land could be developed.
Finally it was agreed by all that this was a fantastic opportunity to develop community facilities in the heart of the village, it was agreed that it is not often that a developer or construction company will hand over such a large tract of land in the centre of a village and indeed the community were very lucky that Walter King was willing to do so.
