Council scuppers plans for voluntary housing scheme
Members of Carbery Housing Association last month outlined their plans to build 20 houses on council-owned land in Bantry.
Back then it seemed as though the organisation only needed to have the project rubber-stamped by the local authority.
However, at a meeting in Clonakilty yesterday, Councillors Donal Casey and John O’Shea voiced their concern and found support from the majority of colleagues to halt the project.
Cllr Casey said that while housing is badly needed in Bantry, the voluntary housing association had no experience of building, as this would be their first project.
“Experience is the most important thing in building. That’s a worry for the people of Bantry,” the Fianna Fáil councillor said.
Fine Gael councillor John O’Shea added that local people would prefer if Cork County Council carried out its own project on the land.
“Seemingly you can never buy a house off a housing association. People’s circumstances change and could be able to buy.
“We are very competent at building. It would be only fair to tell housing association before they expend more money.”
His party colleague, Cllr Paddy Sheehan, said the county council had a very proud record of building houses.
“I can’t see why the council can’t take on scheme itself, as it owns the land.”
Carbery Housing Association had earlier stated that it believed it had got a firm commitment from council officials, but yesterday they denied that.
The association said it was proposing to link up with Gwalia, a voluntary organisation in Wales which had already built 5,000 homes.
More than 150 people have made applications to the organisation, including 55 from the Bantry area.
Assistant county manager Theresa White told the council she would look at the landbank and report back to councillors.
