The formal fruition, in July, of a 33 unit development at Esker Park, Arcadia, will mark the culmination of dedicated toil by Westmeath County Council as the local authority endeavours to reduce the number of tenants awaiting residential accommodation on the relevant housing list.
The first 21 homes on the centrally located site are now completed with tenants receiving the keys to their new residences in recent times. The remaining twelve houses will be completed by the end of July.
Welcoming the unveiling of the development and the allocation of keys to those tenants on the local authority list, former Town Mayor, Cllr. Frankie Keena, noted that the units were the first scheme of local authority housing to be constructed in Athlone for a number of years.
“The specification and design of the Esker Park development is of the highest standard and much thanks is afforded to our council architects with the focus on energy efficiency throughout. The installation of air to heat water pumps in these homes ensures that there is a constant supply of hot water and provides underfloor heating allowing for a constant temperature throughout the house,” Cllr. Keena reflected.
Cllr. Keena noted that plans for further social housing developments at numerous locations within the town were afoot.
“While these residential units will help somewhat in reducing our housing list it is important to say that they are the first of many being planned for Athlone. At the moment plans are being prepared for the provision of approximately 180 new local authority houses at different locations throughout the town,” Cllr. Keena asserted.
The Fianna Fáil Councillor stated that he had been particularly vocal with regard to the provision of affordable housing during his time as an elected public representative.
“I have been very vocal within the Council, highlighting the absence of affordable housing being constructed in Athlone and throughout the county and I stressed my annoyance with the local authority for not availing of the Rebuilding Ireland Service Site fund which is available to assist Councils build affordable housing. In response, the Council stated that one of the criteria for building affordable housing is that they must be constructed on public land.
“There are a large cohort of people on low incomes who are unable to avail of the local authority housing list and are finding it financially tasking to continuously pay high rents without state assistance. These people need to be given the opportunity to avail of affordable housing,” Cllr. Keena added.
Noting that the local authority have responded favourably to his requests, Cllr. Keena stated that the Council Executive had placed a number of advertisements in various media seeking landowners to enter into negotiations pertaining to the purchase of public sites for further social and affordable housing developments
“Hopefully, there will a good level of interest expressed in this regard to assist the local authority with their housing needs in the times to come,” Cllr. Keena acknowledged.
Esker Park Development
All houses within the Esker Park development are constructed to a quality standard with high levels of insulation, underfloor heating and an air-to-water heating system eliminating the use of fossil fuels. The main benefit of air-to-water technology to a homeowner is very high efficiency resulting in low heating costs.
All homes incorporate level access with wider front doors, a ground floor wet-room, wider corridors, the elimination of radiators on the ground floor to facilitate easier access, and wider internal doors.
Each of the two-storey units have side passages to the rear gardens to allow access for bins and bicycles and all houses have steel sheds in the rear gardens.
There are four two-bedroom single storey units within the scheme which are designed for older people or people with a specific need for universal access. These are designed for assisted living including fully fitted and tiled sanitary facilities and accessible showers.
The development adopts the principles of passive supervision where all parking, paths, roads and open spaces are over-looked, providing a better sense of security and safety. Any homes on a corner are designed to reduce the extent of high walls and contain windows on both facing walls for better security and for visual amenity.
The design of the project was led by Westmeath County Council’s in-house architectural team with O.R.S. Engineering in the role of Civil and Structural Engineers, Tom McNamara and Partners as Quantity Surveyors and JAK Engineering as Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. The main contractor for the project was Glenman Corporation Ltd.
The photographs below include the official photograph, marking the delivery of the first phase of social houses at Esker Park with An Cathaoirleach of Westmeath County Council Cllr Ken Glynn, Mayor of the Municipal District of Athlone-Moate Cllr Aengus O’Rourke, Deputy Robert Troy, Cllr Frankie Keena, Cllr John Dolan, Cllr Tom Farrell, Mark Keaveney, Director of Services and Paul Hogan, Senior Executive Architect.
