Council members press for serviced sites house scheme in Mullingar

Westmeath County Council has no plans to deliver serviced sites in Mullingar was the message delivered to Cllr Bill Collentine at the April meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

The statement came by way of response to Cllr Collentine’s request that the district provide an update on its intentions with regards to developing and selling of serviced sites for houses in Mullingar.

The reply did state that the housing section is progressing the serviced sites in Castlepollard and Moate in line with the Crói Cónaithe Scheme. Cllr Collentine said it was great that they are being provided in Castlepollard, but he was disappointed it was not happening in Mullingar. “We were further ahead in 1994. That’s 31 years ago,” he said, reminding officials that, sites were then available in Brookfield.

“It was a very, very good site – it still is,” he said. “And just before that you had Beech Grove, another successful venture. And those were two that really stand out in Mullingar, even today, as regards being good housing sites.”

Cllr Collentine said that a lot of those sites were bought by trades people and other people in jobs, who built the houses themselves and to the spec they wanted.

“And these are the people that are capable still of getting loans. And they can’t get the sites to build the dream house they want to build.

“So they’re forced to buy off a builder or second-hand houses, which is not what they want.”

Some of them, he continued, would like to build in the countryside but don’t meet the criteria.

“I think these are people we need to look after. These people get fed up after a while and they probably emigrate because they can’t get a site,” he said.

Cllr Collentine went on to say that developers are buying a lot of land at the moment around Mullingar.

“So why can’t Westmeath County Council go and buy some of this land as well? Because it’s not that you’re throwing money away because you’re going to develop it and you’re going to sell it and you get your money back. And you can go again then,” he said, adding that the council could also use this strategy to influence the geographical direction into which Mullingar should expand.

Mayor Ken Glynn supported the call, and suggested that it be discussed at SPC level.

“The developments that are there already are proof that it works,” he said.

Also in support of the motion was Cllr David Jones, who said he believes there should be self-service sites for both businesses and for housing: “Roscommon do it for businesses. And it’s after increasing the amount of economic activity around Roscommon,” he said.

Cllr Emily Wallace agreed too, saying that Brookfield was a legacy of the difference the council being involved had made, and said that to this day, the town has benefited from having provided that opportunity to families.

She added that the motion was timely given there is a new county development plan, and a Mullingar area plan in preparation.

Director of services, Deirdre Reilly said the Director for Housing will examine and report back on why there haven’t been serviced sites provided in Mullingar for so long.