A school building project in Co Fermanagh has cleared another hurdle with news that the NI Environment Minister Edwin Poots confirmed that a part of the Model School near Enniskillen would not be architecturally listed.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) carried out a detailed consideration of the school buildings and initially recommended listing after the Western Education & Library Board made clear its intention to replace it with a new school.

Subsequent discussions led to an anticipated significant increase in costs of retaining the existing building in a new school project.

Now, given this cost, NIEA concluded that it would not be appropriate to proceed with listing and as a result, the Minister said: "I am pleased to see a practical view being taken on this case.

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"NIEA considered all options for a solution to be found which reconciled the conflicting demands of heritage protection and appropriate educational provision at a reasonable cost.

"A listing of this relatively modern building would have resulted in extra costs to a building project. It was essential that the needs of the children and their education took priority. Whilst the interest of preserving architecture is important, the overriding interest is providing a fit for purpose educational facility. I welcome the fact that this obstacle has now been removed," he said.

"I would like to commend the efforts of the headmaster and staff of the school, its governors, staff in the Western Education and Library Board and the Department of Education, not forgetting the staff of the NIEA Built Heritage Directorate who worked hard to consider the alternatives to demolition," he concluded.

The Model school dates from 1976 when the board-marked concrete finish being very robust and said to be a well-resolved example of a style also used on London's South Bank and at the Ulster Museum during the same period.

This will not now be preserved, however, a second, Victorian building on the site which was part of an earlier Model School will still be retained after listing by the NIEA.

(GK/BMcC)