Green light for education campus in Navan

Meath County Council has given the go-ahead for a new education campus on Academy Street in Navan which will accommodate Ard Ri Community National School and St Ultan’s Special School.

Both schools will share a campus adjacent to the Baker Hall development with a 16 classroom school plus a four class-base SEN base to be constructed for Ard Ri CNS while and St Ultan’s new building will be a 20 classroom special school.

Ard Ri CNS's new school consist will be a split-level building with part single-storey and part three-storey school comprising of teaching spaces, ancillary spaces, physical education hall facility, special education needs unit, general purpose hall, social areas, library, administration areas, toilet and changing facilities.

The school, which is under the patronage of LMETB, has been in temporary accommodation at Balreask Old since it opened in 2010. In the past 15 years it has grown from just seven pupils to some 360.

Meanwhile a new two-storey building will be provided for St Ultan’s Special School comprising of teaching spaces, ancillary spaces, physical education hall facility, special education needs suite, general purpose hall, social areas, library, administration areas, toilet and changing facilities, external stores with a total internal area of circa 4,359.2m².

St Ultan's will move from its current location at Flower Hill when the new campus is constructed.

The planning application for the long awaited new school campus for both schools was submitted in July of last year and after considering the further information recently submitted by LMETB, Meath County Council has granted planning permission subject to 15 conditions.

News that the planning application has been granted will be widely welcomed by both school communities who have been campaigning for the new schools to be progressed without delay.

In March of this year, the parents associations of both Ard Ri CNS and St Ultan's launched a joint petition that was signed by 1,000 parents in just three days.

The petition demanded “the immediate prioritisation and acceleration of the process by the Department of Education, Planning Department in Meath County Council, and all stakeholders involved, to ensure no further delays.”