Glynn lashes council over Ennell Park failures

Councillors have called for council-led housing developments to be held to the same planning standards as private estates, following mounting concerns about the lack of traffic calming measures and safety infrastructure in some local authority schemes.

At the July meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad, Cllr Ken Glynn tabled a motion seeking assurances that all future council housing applications will include proper traffic calming, safe green spaces, and appropriate boundary fencing or walls.

He said he was prompted to make the call because of Ennell Park, “a prime example of why this motion is relevant”.

“Not a single traffic calming measure was included,” he said, remarking that there is a green area open to the canal, with no fencing, and a large number of young children living there.

In contrast, he highlighted Farranshock as a well-finished development with tabletop ramps and appropriate infrastructure. “The difference is unacceptable,” he added.

The council Housing Section responded that all housing applications are now coordinated across departments – including Planning, Roads, Active Travel, and Community – and must comply with modern guidelines such as DMURS (Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets). The guidelines set clear standards for traffic calming, open spaces, and boundary treatments in public and private developments.

Cllr Glynn was not reassured and said the problem has been continuously long-fingered: “The housing department will not rectify that because they weren’t conditioned to do it. That’s the problem. So we now face a situation, and I won’t rest until we do the work, because the work has to be done, that it’s going to come out of the district budget, which shouldn’t be the case. It should have been part of the housing budget.”

He said this is a second summer residents have had to live with the issues, and “the fear of God” is on them. “Some of them have small children. You can’t hide your child, they have to go and play with their friends. And it’s a fantastic development. But we’ve left ourselves short there of two to three traffic calming measures, possibly four, and a fence which will cost a significant amount of money.”

Cllr Denis Leonard seconded the motion, stating that developers should be required to do works – otherwise, the council ends footing the bill.

District engineer Pat Kavanagh confirmed that steps are now being taken to ensure consistency across all developments. He said he had met with a number of the architects from the housing department, and told them the same standards will apply to their projects as to those of developers. For upcoming housing projects in Canal Avenue, Rochfortbridge, and Harbour Road, ramps and other DMURS-compliant measures have been included, he said.