Councillors in the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District have agreed to defer giving their approval to a proposed part-eight planning permission for a 21-unit social housing development at Cloonkeadagh Road in Kiltimagh.
The proposed development would see 21 housing units built, eight of which would be two-bed houses, seven three-bed houses, and six two-bedroom apartments. The councillors were told there are currently 81 applications on the housing list in the area.
However, while stating they were fully supportive of the need to build the houses, some councillors raised a number of issues they wanted to see fixed or clarified before giving the go-ahead for the development; they added that local residents had also raised concerns with local councillors in relation to footpaths, draining, the sewerage system and overlooking property on the proposed site.
One major concern was raised by Cllr Neil Cruise who said there was a manhole cover in a field at the back of the site that was between the proposed development and St Louis Community School and 'from time to time sewage is blowing the manhole cover open and spilling on to the land'. He described it as "Third world stuff", adding that there was a capacity issue that would have to be sorted with Irish water.
Cllr Michael Smyth said he would like to see the existing community in the locality benefit from the development and asked could it be put in place that the existing homes will be able to connect to the public sewer that will be part of the project.
He also raised concerns over the potential overlooking of an existing property beside the proposed development by a new part of the proposed build.
The councillors agreed to defer the decision on the item until their next meeting in order to see could some of their concerns be addressed.
