The announcement on Wednesday of a €30,265,764 allocation for local authority housing needs in Mayo will see the new 20 unit project in Tubber Hill get started. Minister of State Michael Ring said after the announcement of the funding: “In Westport, 20 new housing units will be built and this will go a long way towards reducing the housing list in Westport. In Mayo, €30,265,764 has been allocated to the county council for local authority housing. It is estimated that this funding will meet 38 per cent of the housing need in Mayo. This is not even including the Housing Assistance Payment which will help to further reduce demand on our housing waiting list.”
The issue of the Tubber Hill development had been raised earlier this week at the West Mayo Municipal District monthly meeting. Director of Services for the district, Martin Keating, told the elected members: “It is proposed to go to part-eight [planning] on this, there was a part-eight previously done, but because of facilitating the medical centre on the site, there are some changes that require a new part eight to be done. It will be advertised shortly, the scheme will be largely the same type of unit and same configuration as previously.”
The project will have a mix of two bedroom apartments along with three and four bedroom houses, with Keating saying that seven apartments will be included in the project.
The progress on the development was welcomed by the elected members, but Fine Gael councillor Theresa McGuire noted that there was a section of the community that was falling into difficulty with finding housing. She said: “There is a growing number of single people, particularly single males in the 30 to 35 years of age, for whom housing is becoming a problem and it is not necessarily males it is also a problem for females. But there is a group of people that we need to ensure we are addressing that vacuum. The single person is an area we need to look after, and be mindful of in the configuration of projects. But I welcome it, 20 units is a good day to get them. But with 198 [applications] on the [housing] list in the Westport area, 20 may not seem a lot, but if you are a family or a person on the list it means a lot to you. There’s never enough, you always want more, but we are thankful for what we are getting.”
