Ambitious Enfield plan holds out promise of 3,000 jobs

Plans for a massive mixed-use development on a 220-acre site on the outskirts of Enfield are being proposed that could potentially create 3,000 jobs when operational. Rybo Partnership has lodged a submission to the draft local area plan for Enfield proposing a large-scale mixed use development that would include 2,000 houses, a train station, hotel, school, multiplex cinema, shopping centre, warehouse units and a logistic park. If approved, it would provide a massive economic boost for the south Meath region. The lands are currently zoned agricultural and are located to the east of Enfield. Rybo Partnership owns approximately 176 acres in the area and, according to their submission, they have an option to buy a further 43 acres. The site is bounded by the Dublin-Sligo railway line and the Royal Canal to the North, the N4 Dublin Road to the south, existing residential development to the west and agricultural land to the east. The plan includes 2,000 residential units, a logistics park, retail warehousing, a shopping centre, an 80-bedroom hotel, a medical campus, a primary health care centre, a nursing home, 40 aged housing units, a community centre with a creche, gym and drop-in-centre, a church, eight-classroom school and playground, a train station, train station car park, a multi-storey car park, a multiplex cinema and theatre, and a neighbourhood centre. The development would have a total area of 347,530sq m. A linear park with leisure amenities and cycleways and walkways are also included and some 40 acres of open space are proposed in the development. A site is included for an integrated/community campus which would be made available to the Department of Education during phase one of the development. The site for the primary care facility and the church would also be provided in tandem with phase one of the plan. It is submitted that the development would take approximately 10 years to complete, providing 700 jobs per annum during construction and that, when operational, more than 3,000 jobs would be created. The largest employers proposed within the plan include the logistics park (1,000 jobs), the shopping centre, including office space (500 jobs), and the medical campus which would include a diagnostics service, mental health units, specialist private hospital, sports injury clinic, rehab unit and acquired brain injury unit (476 jobs). The plan, known as 'Enfield Central", was submitted in response to the draft Enfield Local Area Plan (LAP) which was on public display from 22nd October to 3rd December. The county manager"s report on submissions states 'that development of the lands as proposed would constitute a significant increase in the size of Enfield which would exceed the scale of development envisaged in the settlement hierarchy of the Meath County Development Plan'. The manager recommended that no change be made to the draft LAP. Cllr Jimmy Fegan said that, while in principle he would welcome a project creating this many jobs, there were other constaints which councillors would have to consider. He said: 'While, in principle, I would welcome any project into south Meath that provided as many jobs as this, and instinctively I would want to give my approval to it, there are external pressures on us contained in the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area and the National Spatial Strategy, which we have to have regard for.' He said that Enfield is identified in the County Meath Development Plan as a small-medium town and that it would have to be re-designated to a medium growth town to provide for the development. Cllr Fegan said: 'We have asked for planners from Meath County Council and, if they need it, experts from elsewhere, to advise us on the viability of the development and the mechanisms by which we could overcome, if we can overcome, the external constraints placed upon us, mainly by the Department of the Environment.' He added: 'I don"t believe any councillors are in a mood to breach either of the guidelines, because if we did, we run the risk of having the entire Meath County Development Plan scuppered.'