The award of a short-term lease to a local football club could be just the thing to spark the regeneration of an area that has largely been linked with anti-social behaviour.
Local councillors this week welcomed the decision to award Hanover Harps football club a two-year sporting lease for more than five acres of land at Rathnapish, known locally as ‘The Plots’.
The land around the football pitches has been largely ignored over the years and councillors welcomed the fact that the club’s two year lease will go hand in hand with the council’s development of the land as an area of amenity.
The council had been in negotiations with the adjacent landowners to do an exchange of land, town clerk Joe Watters told members.
“Since the Gaelscoil was relocated, the site has been cleared, and it now offers the opportunity for a more significant use of the land,” he said.
“Hanover Harps have linked very well with the community and we have not had one single complaint from anyone in the area about the way it is run.
“A two-year lease will be agreed and during the currency of that, the council will look at how the area might be used, incorporating the club into the overall development of the land.”
Once the proposed public park and amenity area is complete, it is understood the football club will be offered a longer-term lease which would allow them to apply for lottery funding.
“This is an ideal location for amenity. We have something on the Graiguecullen side and Hanover Park will be of high quality when it is complete. That particular area is crying out for amenities,” said Cllr Walter Lacey.
And Cllr Rody Kelly welcomed anything that involved working with young people, particularly where volunteers were involved.
“We should not just be seen to be encouraging sport but we should actually do it. This could also act as an incentive to stop the appalling level of litter that takes place in the area from time to time,” he said.
Heavy littering as well as instances of vandalism and anti-social behaviour have caused problems in the area in the past.
Mr Watters assured councillors that the back lane serving the houses in the area, would be a significant element of the proposed redevelopment.
