Local action group to monitor Moycullen social housing

An action group to monitor future planning for Moycullen village is to be set up following a public meeting held to discuss Galway County Council’s proposals to make it a hub for social housing schemes.

The meeting, organised and chaired by Councillor Noel Thomas, heard him outline the local authority’s plans for three sites – and possibly more – in the village to help the Council reach its target of providing 926 social housing units across the county by the end of 2021.

There were collective intakes of breath when Cllr Thomas suggested that the population of the village would double if the rumoured 200 units were built, not to mention how it would grow even bigger once the by-pass was built.

The meeting was told that the community had no say in the provision of 49 social houses on a privately owned site opposite the fuel station on the N59 on the Galway side of the village – but that councillors did have discretion on the proposed first phase of 31 units on Council-owned land adjacent to the children’s playground.

It had been speculated that a third site owned by Coillte on the Church Road would also be used for 61 social housing – but Minister of State, Seán Kyne assured the 180 people present that the Council had no plans for that location, which has planning permission for a private development.

This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article, see this week’s Connacht Tribune.