Council secures 7.5-acres – for less than €70,000!

A ‘barter deal’ overseen by City Council Chief Executive, Brendan McGrath, has netted the local authority a 7.5 acre recreational and amenity portion of land at Cappagh Park for a net cost of less than €70,000.

Councillors heard news of the latest land acquisition by the City Council at a meeting last week when details were given of the sale of 70 square metres of land to developers.

According to a report presented to the Council by Director of Services, Tom Connell, the developers of the estate at Cappagh Road inadvertently incorporated a small portion of recreation and amenity land owned by the Council, into the back garden of one of the houses.

“The owners now wish to purchase the Council-owned land to rectify the matter. The value of the land including compensation to the Council is reflected in the sale price which also includes legal and valuation costs,” the report stated.

He told councillors that it was ‘a very small incursion’ and that a sale price of €35,000 had been agreed.

Brendan McGrath then told councillors that it had also been agreed with the same developer to purchase 7.5 acres of recreation and amenity land at Cappagh Park for €105,000.

“The end result of those two transactions is that we have ended up with 7.5 acres of conveniently located recreational and amenity lands at Cappagh Park for under €70,000. I think that this is a very good deal for the Council,” he said.

Cllr Donal Lyons (Ind) said that the acquisition of the land was great news for the Knocknacarra area and would be a wonderful amenity addition while Cllr John Connolly said he ‘complimented’ the Chief Executive for the deal he had done.

A number of councillors joined in a round of applause for Mr McGrath but Cllr Colette Connolly (Ind) said that she wouldn’t be joining in on any ‘claps on the back’.