By Chris Ashmore 

COUNCILLORS have given the green light for Donegal County Council to proceed with proposals to build 172 new social housing units at Ballymacool, on the outskirts of Letterkenny.

The Council’s Housing Capital Section proposes to build 18 one-bedroom apartments, 38 two-bedroom apartments, 18 three-bedroom maisonettes, 13 two-bedroom houses, 57 three-bedroom houses, 13 four-bedroom houses, four five-bedroom houses and ten two-bedroom independent living houses and one five bedroom group home (with an HSE employee on-site), adjacent to the existing Independent Centre for Living premises.

The site is across the road from the playing fields at the back of the St. Eunan’s GAA Club’s main pitch at O’Donnell Park, and beside Ballymacool Town Park and the Ballymacool housing estate.

The total cost of the development will exceed €50 million. There will be two entrances both off the existing road up into the Ballymacool housing estate.

At Monday’s plenary meeting of Donegal Co. Council, councillors passed what is known as a Part 8. In effect, this is the end of a process where a local authority actually passes plans for a project which it is itself developing, having held public consultations and taken into account various views and representations.

There was widespread backing for the housing development proposals.

Cllr. Donal ‘Mandy’ Kelly noted that there had been “very detailed” workshops held with officials and concerns had been raised, especially in relation to water issues, and traffic.

Referring to the fact that there are more than 1.300 people on the social housing waiting list in the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District Council area, he described the building of these new homes as “a massive step in the right direction.”

“This is a much needed development,” commented Cllr. Gerry McMonagle who pointed out that there are three zones within it.

He also highlighted the fact that the development will be carried out at a time when under the new Active Travel plan the area will also see the installation of new cycleways and footpaths.

Cllr. Donal Coyle said that it was “the biggest building project that Donegal Co. Council will ever have carried out” but he added that they would need eight schemes of this magnitude to deal with the present figures on the social housing waiting list.

Cllr. Denis McGee expressed concern about traffic issues in the area while Cllr. Tomás Seán Devine expressed disappointment that there were no houses for people with disabilities to move into.

“There are 31 people with disabilities on the housing list but we are not doing anything about it,” he said. He also made the point that it would be cheaper to have some houses suitable for people with disabilities to move into rather than having to be adapted at a later stage.

“These houses cannot come quickly enough,” commented Cllr. Michael McBride, who added: “One person homeless is one too many.”

A number of submissions in relation to the proposals were received by the Council during the consultation period. One of them was from Cathal McGlynn, Chairman of the Ballymacool Residents’ Association, who raised concerns about “a significant increase in traffic and noise” as well as a “loss or privacy for existing residents” and what he termed would be a “dramatic alteration to the established character of the estate.”

In response, the Council stressed that the development complies with national, regional and local planning policy. It rejected concerns about traffic noise and other issues raised. It is envisaged that the new development will have 274 car parking spaces and 76 bike parking spaces.