Councillors’ plea to Bord Pleanála – just give us something to build on

Three Government ministers are to be invited to talks with Galway City Council to work out how to develop more housing after two major schemes were rejected by An Bord Pleanála despite years of hard work by the planning department.

Galway City Councillors voiced their abject frustration over the failure to secure 165 homes for various reasons for local authority tenants.

Chief Executive Brendan McGrath said the refusals impacted on the Council’s housing targets for the next three years up to 2025 and on the land the local authority was trying to acquire into the future to build social and affordable housing.

Planning permission granted for the construction of 71 social housing units at Keeraun on the Ballymoneen Road in Galway was overturned by An Bord Pleanála (ABP) last month.

The board considered the development to be piecemeal, with inadequate provision of social and physical infrastructure and excessively car-dependent.

The Council had spent over €10 million to purchase the site. The development included eight Traveller-specific accommodation units which were to be used to rehouse those living in the Cúl Trá site in Salthill owned by the Catholic Diocese for which the lease has expired.

They also rejected a social housing scheme in Castlegar on the Headford Road to build three Traveller-appropriate houses and 21 apartments on a 2.2-acre field north of a van hire business, citing the lack of pedestrian, cycle and bus connections.

This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article, see the February 17 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.