Members of Castlebar Town Council voted by five votes to two on Tuesday night to fix a development bond on new housing developments in the town. The new bond will see developers having to lodge a bond of €6,000 per house on developments of up to 10 houses, €5,000 per house on developments of between 11 and 30 houses (a minimum bond of €60,000 must be lodged ) and bond of €4,000 per house on developments over 31 houses (a minimum of €150,000 must be lodged ).
The new bonds replace the old system where bonds were decided on a case by case basis by the executive of the council. The proposal, put forward by Fine Gael Cllr Brendan Henaghan and seconded by party colleague Cllr Eugene McCormack, received the backing of the three Fine Gael members and the two Fianna Fáil members present at the meeting, following a suggestion by town manager Seamus Granahan. This proposal countered a proposal put forward by Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne and seconded by Sinn Féin Cllr Noel Campbell to set the bond at 10 per cent of the development cost, which was defeated by five votes to two.
Mr Granahan raised concerns regarding Cllr Kilcoyne’s proposal at the meeting.
“The proposal of 10 per cent of a development can cause problems because it’s arbitrary,” Mr Granahan told the council. “Ten per cent of the value of a development now is not the same as 10 per cent of what a development was worth a few years ago. Settling on a percentage could cause difficulties in the future, whereas if we agree a figure now its’s set in stone. We have to be very careful because if the cost of a house in a development is €200,000 then that’s €20,000 up front that a developer will have to give over on every house they want to build, and they might not bother with the development then if they can’t afford it.”
Cllr Kilcoyne, in putting forward his motion, pointed out that “these bonds are to cover the council when they take charge of an estate to make sure everything is correct or we will be left picking up the tab. These bonds cover everything including if the contractor goes to the wall and we have to pick up the tab. All I want to see is that the council are adequately covered in that case.”
Councillors and managment expressed concerns that the figure of 10 per cent on each development as proposed by Cllr Kilcoyne could be seen as anti-development. Cllr Aidan Crowley (Fianna Fáil ) told the meeting that “I can see where Cllr Kilcoyne is coming from on this, but we don’t want to be seen to discourage development, we’re all looking out for the same thing but I think we should go with the managers proposal.”
Finna Fáil Cllr Blackie Gavin received backing from his fellow members for a proposal that Castlebar Town Council will cut the grass in green areas of estates that have been taken over by the council. Cllr Gavin’s proposal was seconded by Cllr Michael Kilcoyne. However, the town manager warned of the cost implications of the proposal.
“The council already cuts the green areas in a number of estates in the town, but putting it down in writing that we are responsible for the maintenance of all the green areas when we are looking at taking over 30 to 40 estates in the future will be a serious cost to the council,” Mr Granahan said. “We will have to find the money for it somewhere at budget time, but we would prefer that we continued to try and encourage residents’ associations to be formed in estates and they take on the task themselves and we have funding set aside to provide them with lawnmowers and other materials for the task.”
Cllr Gavin said it was dubious that the council would take over 30 and 40 estates in the life of the next council, never mind this one.
