Neighbours raise flood concerns over proposed Moycullen development

Concerns have been raised about flooding potentially being caused by the proposed construction of more than 30 new homes and four commercial units in Moycullen.

Cyril Kelly has sought permission for the development on the 2.1-acre site at Ballyquirke West, which he has agreed to purchase from Patrick Lee, subject to planning being granted.

The site is located off Church Road in the village, to the west of the Uilinn estate, and will be accessed through that development.

The proposed development will have a gross floor area of 3,686 square metres (3,484 sq m residential and 202 sq m commercial), and will include 21 houses and ten apartments.

There will be twelve four-bed houses, six three-bed and three two-bed, while the plans include seven two-bed and three one-bed apartments, as well as 62 parking spaces.

“The proposed site is zoned as ‘Town Centre/Commercial’ in the Moycullen Local Area Plan. There is an existing large shopping complex located approximately ten metres from the corner of our site and we feel that a new commercial development maximising the plot ratio of the site would not be economically viable for Moycullen village. Our proposal is to construct a mixed-use development consisting of 35 units on the site,” the application reads.

To comply with social housing requirements, the applicant proposes to hand over three of the houses to the County Council.

A resident of the Uilinn estate has raised concerns that the storm water attenuation tank is of poor design, and the design and capacity of the drains could lead to a flow of water into the adjacent Elmwood and Uilinn estates.

“There were serious issues with a water tank/feature which was built for the original development at Uilinn until that was bypassed by a new drainage pipe down the side of the site. We do not wish to see a reoccurrence of same.

“To avoid any negative impact on the houses at the lower end of Uilinn, I am proposing that the capacity of the pipe which currently exists be improved by a large factor to cope with any storm water effects which are likely to be exacerbated by the new development during periods of prolonged high rainfall.

“This would guarantee that there is sufficient capacity to take away any additional water ending up in Uilinn. This would assuage the fears of any negative effects resulting from the new development for me and my neighbours.

“This is an opportunity to address this defect and ensure that old and new residents in the community are looked after and protected from a culture of short-term thinking and not making adequate provisions for our changing climate and more frequent extreme weather events,” the submission reads.

A decision on the planning application is expected at the beginning of February.