Death of Celtic Tiger puts 600 planned homes into cold storage

Date Published: 09-Nov-2011

Had the property collapse not happened when it did, in excess of 600 new houses would have been built across rural County Galway and would have lead to the creation of even more ‘ghost estates’.

Applications to Galway County Council for the extension of planning permission for estates for another five years reveal that the property situation could have been much worse than it is at the moment.

A trawl through the Galway County Council planning section reveals that around a dozen estates which were granted planning permission back in 2006 and didn’t proceed have now received another five year extension to their planning.

It also shows that more than 100 one-off houses in rural areas, which were granted planning permission at the time, didn’t proceed and the applicants are also looking for an extension to their planning permission.

Over the past six months many developers, who were previously granted planning permission to build housing estates in rural County Galway, have come back to the local authority seeking an extension of planning for another five years.

Possibly the most alarming aspect to the whole building boom at the time was the tendency to locate fairly large residential developments in small rural villages in County Galway – often in areas lacking in sporting, recreational and educational facilities.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.