COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

MOTION NO. 7

MOTION: Councillor William Joseph Carey

"This Committee agrees that the provision of the Astro Pitch in Knockmitten Park in partnership with Knockmitten United FC must proceed and requests that Council management work directly with the club to find a solution to the current funding shortfall on the project. The Committee further agrees that all funding options should be explored including the possibility of making additional funding available in the 2022."

REPORT:

The Council’s Community Department has committed €15,000 to support the development of an All Weather Pitch by Knockmitten FC on lands in Knockmitten managed by Public Realm / EWCC.   Public Realm manage such projects on behalf of clubs/Community Department but do not contribute financially.

The club developed the concept for the 50m x 36m Astro pitch and submitted the estimates to the council for grant application based on total project costs of €168,708.  Following the Part 8 approval for the project, detailed design by consultants resulted in significantly higher projected costs of €309,355.54.  Public Realm subsequently carried out various value engineering exercises on this size of pitch but all options remained over the available budget for the project and so the consultants were requested to design a facility in line with money available: resulting in a proposed 30m x 15m Astro pitch with projected costs of €160,216.  The various costs and funding positions of each option are set out in the table below:

Proposed Knockmitten Astro Pitch

Original 2017 Club Proposal

Revised Estimated Costs

Cost Optimal Proposal

Size

50m x 36m Astro

50 x 36m Astro

30m x 15m Astro

Construction Cost inc. VAT

€141,551

 282,355.54

133,214

Extras (Consultants/ESB)

€27,000

€27,000

€27,000

Total Cost

€168,551

€309,355.54

€160,216

Funding:

 

 

 

Sports Capital Grant

137,708

137,708

137,708

Club Funding

15,000

15,000

7,508

Community Dept. Funding

15,000

15,000

15,000

Total Funds:

€167,708

€167,708

€160,216

Net Position:

-€843 Deficit

-€141,648 Deficit

Balance

 

 

 

 

When presented with the above analysis, the club restated their desire to retain the original proposed pitch size, and suggested that the Council apply for a new sports capital grant or that the Club/Council provide increased funding for the project. Save for a possible funding application by the Club under the Community Department Community Infrastructure Fund 2021, without a guarantee of success (max. grant available €50k but likely to be very high demand given no such funding was provided in 2020), there is no other discretionary funding available to the Council for this project.

The advice from the Department’s Sports Capital Grant Section on the feasibility of a new application is that the grant already awarded to the Council for this proposed project  is at the very higher end of the scale of grants (Max grant €150K) and that additional grant funding for this project would be very unlikely (due to greater demand for grants, previous funding award not utilised, overall funding levels available, reduced percentage funding available for projects etc.).  They have also strongly advised that the project should be scaled back to the level of available funding.

The Council’s recommendation is that the project proceed as per the cost optimal proposal in line with the existing funding available and the recommendation from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, having regard for the following: