An artist’s image of what the St Waleran’s Housing development in Gorey could look like.
After months of asking, months of patiently awaiting a response, Gorey councillor Darragh McDonald has finally been informed of how many houses are expected to be built at the St Waleran’s site on the outskirts of town. The magical figure was revealed at the October meeting of the Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District (GKMD) by county architect Shay Howell.
“The masterplan is for 500-600 houses,” said Mr Howell. “That will take a long time however, because we have no roads or services at the site.”
Those houses will be built on a phased basis but their delivery is dependent on water and electricity services being routed to the new properties.
“The first planning permission we have is for 173 houses that includes social and affordable,” continued Mr Howell. “The first phase of that will be going out to tender this year, and is for 40 social houses. That will be followed by 35 affordable houses next year. At the moment we’re held up because we don’t have services at the site, but we’re hoping that once we get the first phase connected the rest of the site can follow on.”
Having acquired this information, Councillor McDonald’s attention turned to ensuring the roads surrounding the proposed 500-600 houses would not be allowed to fall into disrepair.
“Can we set aside funds for the Ballytegan Road in acknowledgement of the amount of traffic it will be taking?” he asked. “We need to earmark money for this now, I don’t want to be begging for it at a later date.”
In response, Mr Howell said a new road would be built to facilitate those living in the new houses.
“That road is in the design stage at the moment, we hope a special tranche of funding will be made available for that.”
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.