150 new social housing units given green light in Knocknacarra

Two house-building projects in Knocknacarra – which will provide 152 social housing units – have been given the green light, but amendments to the plans means they will be delayed by months.

Councillors at a meeting of Galway City Council welcomed the first social housing schemes in ten years in the city where 4,140 families — an estimated 12,000 people — are on the housing list.

However, following a decision by councillors to omit a link road in one scheme of 78 residential units at Ballyburke and a pedestrian/cycleway in the second scheme of 74 units, neither of these will now go to tender in August as planned, as the amended plans will have to be resubmitted to the Department of the Environment.

The bigger of the two schemes at Ballyburke on the Ballymoneen Road (the Ard Cré development, part of which is currently under construction) is fully financed by public funds, but Brendan McGrath, Chief Executive of Galway City Council, said the other scheme of 74 units, at the entrance to Coláiste na Coiribe could be in jeopardy as it was being built by a private contractor under a Public Private Partnership scheme.

“I am not crying wolf here,” he warned councillors, “but this scheme is part of a bundle and I would be concerned that there is a risk that the bundle will proceed without us.”

Patricia Philbin, Senior Executive Officer, had told the meeting she had hoped to send the housing plans to the Department in July, go to tender in August, break ground next January and have them completed by the middle of 2020.

Cllr Declan McDonnell, chairman of the Housing Strategic Policy Committee, described concerns about alleyways and through roads as “delaying tactics” and said he would not be supporting it in light of the need for housing in the city.

But a number of councillors were determined to bring public concerns to the meeting about security, crime and child safety. There were 72 submissions made on this scheme alone after it went on public display. Mr McGrath said he was surprised at the tone and language used in a number of these.  Councillors Mark Lohan and Billy Cameron agreed.

Cllr Niall McNelis said that the concerns of local people had to be taken into account as residents did not want alleyways or areas that would attract anti-social behaviour and that the Council had to close many of these off in recent years for that reason.

Outgoing Mayor of Galway, Cllr Pearce Flannery stressed that houses needed to be built and he welcomed both schemes, but without the link road or the laneways.

It was pointed out to councillors that there was no comparison to alleyways in previous housing estates to what was envisaged here, where the pedestrian/cycle way giving access to the school, were designed differently.

Both Mr McGrath and Ms Philbin, Acting Director of Services, explained to councillors that such linkage roads and walkways were part of the city’s own Development Plan, as well as the National Development Plan as they represented sustainability of movement and transport and to omit them in these schemes was going against national policy and in fact might mean that homeowners in adjacent estates might find when selling that their properties were not certificate compliant.

Cllr Lohan said he welcomed the housing schemes and their layout — they will include four, three and two-bedroomed houses and duplexes to suit smaller family units with playgrounds and green spaces as well as home zones — but was concerned about the reluctance of some councillors to get them the go-ahead.

Cllr Cathal Ó Conchúir acknowledged that alleyways had created anti-social problems before, but was confident these pedestrian/cycle ways were totally different as they were overlooked by houses and weren’t surrounded by high walls.

Despite the executive advice to the meeting, councillors voted to amend both plans by 14 to 3.