The elected members of Ballina Town Council welcomed the news that the council was taking over Woodlands, Kilmoremoy and paid particular praise to the wife of the late developer of the estate for her efforts to have the estate taken in charge by the council.
Town engineer Michael O’Grady outlined to the meeting that the 14 house estate which was first given planning permission in 1989 was in good condition overall, but following an inspection of the sewerage system in the estate it was found that substantial works would have to be carried out on it. He told the members that the council had €15,236.86 cash on hand from the bonds placed on the estate from the original planning permission and that a total of €38,650 would be needed to bring the water and sewerage system up to standard. The engineer informed the meeting that a bulk water meter would have to be installed in the estate which would cost €2,400 of that total and that cost would be born by Mayo County Council. This left an additional outlay of €19,200 which the wife of the late developer had paid to the council on July 28 this year.
Fine Gael councillor Michelle Mulherin proposed the take over of the estate. “You can tell there was a lot of work to be done and fair play to the developer’s late wife for not shirking the responsibility and paying the contribution, it’s what every developer should be doing,” she said.
Fianna Fáil councillor Willie Nolan said he hoped that in future other developers would act in the same way, and he hoped that other residents of estates who are looking to get them taken over do not find themselves in the position where there are major works to be done and the developer is gone and not there to do them.
His fellow Fianna Fáil councillor Johnny O’Malley told the meeting: “If every other estate we are looking at taking in charge was like this one, we wouldn’t have the issue that we run into time and time again, when people don’t honour their commitments like the developer on this one did.”
