3D illustration of pitches and clubhouse proposed by Ballinrobe Town AFC.

Mayo football club's plans for new pitches before council for approval

SOCCER in south Mayo is set to receive a major boost as plans for a major new complex progress.

Ballinrobe Town AFC is developing three new pitches as well as a clubhouse, with an application for planning permission now before Mayo County Council for consideration.

The three new pitches comprise one full size grass pitch, one full size all-weather 4G astro pitch, along with a nine-a-side mini 3G astro all-weather pitch.

The plans include 93 car parking spaces, as well as cycle parking - 50 spaces.

A report submitted to planners sets out how the 2.7 hectare site for the proposed new soccer pitches and clubhouse is located adjacent to and sharing access with the recently developed Milehill Cemetery.

Ballinrobe Town Association Football Club (BTAFC) was founded and played its first competitive game in 1888. It has been serving its community with sports and health and fitness in the 136 years since.

Its current location on The Green, serving the club since the 1880s, struggles to provide the capacity and growth that the success of the club brings.

Operating alongside the rugby club, the athletics club and a canalside walk, the pitch cannot take the amount of playing time required of it and there is no room for expansion at this location.

Ballinrobe Town FC is not planning to move from The Green for the foreseeable future.

The proposed sporting facilities at Ballinaya will be accessed from the Neale Road (R334) via an existing ghost island priority T junction, recently constructed by Mayo County Council to provide access to a new cemetery.

In developing the plans, a public consultation open day was held last November and following community input, a number of minor revisions were incorporated into the final drawings.

The report concluded: 'We respectfully suggest that this development proposal will provide the long term facilities for the sporting community of Ballinrobe. While the town struggles with the lack of certain facilities (swimming pool, cinema and so on), track and field clubs do phenomenal work sustaining health and fitness, and social cohesion within the town, with inadequate facilities.

'The proposal comes from the grass roots up, it's non-profit, and will have funding sought by, be built and operated by a cohort of unpaid volunteers.

'It is proposed at an evolving location at the edge of the town. Mutual co-location at the cemetery which will have rare usage, with this sports activity which will have very regular usage, and overseen by a committee whose ongoing passive surveillance, will benefit the cemetery and surrounds beyond measure.

'We respectfully suggest that this proposal will contribute to the many interventions that resolve this location to a functional and rational extension to the town.'

Ballinrobe Town AFC have looked at numerous options over the last number of years in an effort to secure additional grounds to serve its members, which number around 450. It has only one playing pitch at The Green which is used for both training and games by 16 to 20 teams, along with renting a small astro pitch at the Green and a small grass pitch owned by the local secondary school.