The long campaign to equip Ballybay Fire Service personnel with a modern station facility reached a successful conclusion at Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council. The elected members endorsed a planning and development recommendation which will facilitate the construction of a new 504 square metre, two-bay fire station with a training tower and ancillary accommodation at Corrybrennan, Ballybay. 2024 is the completion date set for the project. In a report presented at Monday’s meeting, Co Council Senior Planner Adrian Hughes said that the planning authority “is satisfied that the proposed development is sensitively designed, is compatible with the character of Ballybay and is appropriate in terms of the proposed scale, layout and materials, and would make a positive contribution to Ballybay.”
Mr Hughes told the meeting that the proposal was consistent with the Monaghan Co Development Plan. The approval of the “Part VIII” recommendation before the meeting was formally proposed by Fine Gael’s Sean Gilliland, who declared it “a topic worthy of some discussion”. “It has been a long and onerous road to get this proposed development to where it is today,” Councillor Gilliland reflected, thanking Chief Fire Officer Dermot Brannigan, who was present at the meeting, and Senior Planner Mr Hughes for their tenacity in dealing with the matter. Councillor Gilliland said it had been “up the tree and down the tree” in relation to identifying a suitable site for the development. He added that the new fire station was needed “for numerous reasons” – other Municipal District areas in the county had secured new fire station…
