What the velodrome building would look like if given the go ahead
Plans for a velodrome at the JJB facility at Dundalk Retail Park have suffered a massive setback after students at Dundalk IT voted almost unanimously against the proposals yesterday.
The ambitious plans for the velodrome in conjunction with the college were announced last Wednesday by Cuchulainn Cycling Club, with DkIT president Denis Cummins saying he was determined to work with the them and Cycling Ireland to bring the first velodrome in Ireland to the town.
However, the move angered students at the college who claimed they were not consulted on the plans despite the fact that they voted last year to support the college’s takeover of JJB – a decision which will add an additional €125 per year to their fees to help subsidise its purchase.
Class reps met on Monday afternoon to discuss the matter and of the 40 reps present, 39 voted to oppose the proposal, with one abstaining.
That leaves the plans very much up in the air with president Cummins giving a commitment that the velodrome “would not go ahead without student support,” according to DkIT Students’ Union president Brian Fitzpatrick.
In a statement on the Students’ Union website this morning, Mr Fitzpatrick said: “We invited DkIT president Denis Cummins in to talk about the background of the proposal and what it would mean to the college if it was passed. Denis insisted that this was still only a proposal and would not go ahead without the student support. After taking some difficult questions on the matter from some of the reps in attendance, Denis asked us to hold back on taking a vote and to wait until we could make a more informed decision in the near future. He then left us to discuss the matter further before taking our vote.
“We decided that we would take the vote there and then as we seen no point in delaying since we had gathered sufficient feedback from all students over the past week. Of the 40 class reps present, 39 voted to oppose the proposal, 1 abstained and 0 voted in favour of the proposal.
“The general feeling was that this is our facility, and rather than just jumping at the first funding opportunity that comes available, we should be patient and wait for something that will actually be an addition for us students in DkIT.
I would like to thank all of the DkIT students for their feedback on the issue and all of the class reps for helping us gather it.”
A poll was launched last week within the college by the DkIT Students’ Union to gauge opinion on the velodrome proposals but most felt it was not in the best interests of students. While there are a wide range of clubs and societies on campus, cycling is not one of them.
According to one student, posting on the Dundalk IT Students’ Union Facebook page: “A lot of students are against this. This is not what was agreed.”
One commentator to Talk of the Town, Vikki Conroy said: “It doesn’t really make sense to build a facility purely for use by a cycling club. Why pull out the major facilities that’s already in place and students were promised use of?”
Should the ambitious plans fail then, Cuchulainn Cycling Club could revert to their initial idea of building a cycling park in Muirhevnamor – a project they had already secured land and planning permission for.
Talk of the Town 