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One fifth turn down City Council houses
One fifth of people offered a house by Galway City Council turn it down, according to the latest figures on social housing.
The 21% refusal rate has remained static for a number years, even with the shortage of housing, a housing waiting list of 4,200 and amid a climate of increasing rents.
If applicants refuse a social house twice, they are then moved much lower down the waiting list, which is categorised according to need as well as length of time they have been waiting.
Given the shortage of social housing in the city, the council will shortly begin a review of the reasons for refusal in a bid to determine if the process can be made more efficient.
A spokesman for Galway City Council said the refusal figure was lower than other most other areas – Galway County Council had a refusal rate of over one third while counties such as Cork and Waterford had half the houses offered turned down by applicants.
Applicants are asked for their preference for the east or west side of the city.
“People are refusing for a range of reasons. It could be unsuitability due to location – it may be too far away from their family network or schools,” he explained.
“There is a significant issue around housing need in Galway City – as there across the country – so we are looking at the rates of refusal to see if there is something more that needs to be done, maybe we need to change the allocation process.
“We’re not saying they don’t have a legitimate reason for turning down houses. There are very few areas that are hard to let at this stage compared to what might have been historically.”
Chairman of the Housing Strategic Policy Committee (SPC), Cllr Declan McDonnell, said there needed to be greater enforcement of antisocial behaviour, which was behind some of the refusals.
“A lot of the refusals are down to people who want to live in a certain area – not just east or west – and, that, in my opinion, is not an excuse for turning down a house. If there is antisocial behaviour, I can understand why they would,” the independent Cllr remarked.
“A lot of refusals are by people hoping their favoured area comes up. It’s sad because there is such a scarcity of housing. People further down the list would give their left arm for a chance to rent a social house.
“It could be a case that if there’s one family in the area they won’t go there. It’s location, location, location. But they should think very seriously before they refuse a house because with the local authority finishing just 14 houses by 2017, the amount of houses coming on stream will be far and few between.”
Another member of the Housing SPC, Cllr Niall McNelis (Lab), said the council had to take a hard line when it came to refusals.
“I know of one case when a mother refused a house because it wasn’t on a bus route and her 10-year-old child would have to walk half an hour in the rain to go to school – that’s a legitimate reason. But I know of another that was refused because they didn’t know any families in the area – that’s not acceptable,” he stated.
“You can’t just keeping turning down everything you’re offered. There are real families on the verge of homelessness and it’s taking too long to get offered a house, this is delaying the whole thing.”
There are very few so-called “voids” – houses which need to be overhauled for local authority tenants.
Director of Services for Housing and Social Inclusion, Environment, Recreation and Amenity, Tom Connell, said recently that of the city’s local authority stock of 2,218 units, just 15 were not in a fit state for tenants.
Funding had been secured for 14 new council houses to be built on Ballymoneen Road with approval awaited for another 55 on the site.
Some 60 tourism companies from Ireland attended ‘Flavours of Ireland’ 2022 in London last week – including Connemara Wild Escapes, DK Connemara Oysters and Killary Fjord Boat Tours.
‘Flavours’ is Tourism Ireland’s annual B2B tourism workshop, where tourism companies from Ireland meet and do business with top global inbound tour operators.
Now in its 20th year, ‘Flavours’ took place in the Guildhall, in the City of London, and was attended by around 100 global inbound tour operators who deliver business from all over the world, including the United States, Mainland Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa.
‘Flavours’ provides an excellent opportunity for the participating tourism providers from Galway and Ireland to highlight and sell their tourism product and build valuable relationships with the key decision-makers in attendance.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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From the Galway City Tribune – The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has asked Galway City Council to roll back material alterations to the new City Development Plan proposed by councillors.
In July, elected members voted through a raft of changes to zonings in the Draft City Development Plan 2023-29, which went out on public display.
But the Planning Regulator has now warned City Hall that many of the proposed changes do not comply with the OPR’s recommendations, and are contrary to national planning guidelines.
The OPR specifically highlighted problems with proposals to rezone as residential land deemed at risk of flooding.
Anne Marie O’Connor, Deputy Regulator, wrote to the Council’s Planning Department outlining the OPR’s fresh advice on the changes to the draft plan proposed and approved by councillors.
The draft plan will come before elected members again this month.
Councillors will be asked to row back on some of their previous material alterations, which ran contrary to advice of the OPR.
Ms O’Connor said the OPR welcomed many of the changes made by the City Council in its draft plan. She said, however, that the OPR “has a number of outstanding concerns relating to the response of the planning authority to its recommendations and to a number of proposed material alterations relating to the zoning of lands”.
These relate to changes that conflict with national and regional objectives for compact growth; with legislative requirements regarding climate action and core strategies; and with rezoning land at risk of flooding.
The OPR highlighted a dozen or more material alterations by councillors that are “not consistent” with the National Planning Framework for compact growth.
These include re-zoning of land from agricultural or recreational and amenity to residential.
The changes voted on by councillors, the OPR noted, were done against the advice of the Council’s Chief Executive Brendan McGrath.
The OPR said the changes proposed by councillors represented a “piecemeal approach” to zoning and were “inconsistent” with national policy.
These comments related to proposed rezoning of land at Rahoon; Dublin Road; Quarry Road, Menlo; Ballindooley; off Circular Road; Menlo village; Roscam and Barna Woods.
The OPR also raised “significant concerns” over five material alterations proposed for residential zonings of land at Western Distributor Road; Terryland; Menlo Village; Headford Road and Barna Woods which are located within flood zones.
The approach by councillors “may place people and property at unnecessary risk from future flood events”, the OPR warned.
Ms O’Connor told planners that if the draft plan ignores the OPR advice or is at odds with its recommendations, the Council Chief Executive must inform the OPR in writing the reasons for doing so.
Save Roscam Peninsula in a 33-page submission to the draft plan echoed many of the concerns outlined by the OPR.
The Council has pencilled in four dates in November and December to approve the plan.
It will meet on November 21, 24 and 28 and December 1 when material alterations will be voted on individually.
This article first appeared in the print edition of the Galway City Tribune, November 4. You can support our journalism by subscribing to the Galway City Tribune HERE. The print edition is in shops every Friday.
JOHN HARNEY from Mountpleasant first joined the Ballinasloe Horse and Agriculture Show Committee, all of 60-years ago, on April 24, 1962. Both John and the show are still going strong as they celebrate their 183rd event on this Sunday. Here, he looks back on his involvement with this iconic show through the years.
THE Ballinasloe Show back in the early 1960s was going well with both the Showgrounds and Duggan Park both used for running the competitions.
My first introduction to the show was stewarding the pony competitions in the Mountpleasant end of the Duggan Park with the rest of the GAA field being used for trade stands.
At that time, it was a very big show with horses, ponies, cattle and sheep, pigs and fowl – also there was a big garden and farm produce section as well as a home craft and baking section with flowers and plants supported by a very large women’s committee.
At that time, showjumping took place in the afternoon with the top riders in the country taking part. I was elected Chairman at the AGM in 1975, a position I held for ten years.
During that time, the Duggan Park Committee approached the Show Committee for a piece of the showgrounds behind the GAA Stand for dressing rooms.
This was brought up a number of times at our committee meetings, and at first, the view was that the Duggan Park Committee would buy the ground.
However, after much deliberation it was decided by the Show Committee to ‘give the ground’ for the sum of £1 with the proviso that the dressingrooms could be used on show days by the local ICA to do catering for the event.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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