Ghost estates special report: Site resolution plan a ‘model of best practice’

Council officials have been praised for tackling what was once described as one of Cork’s worst ghost estates.

Councillor Bernard Moynihan said the site resolution plan adopted and implemented to tackle issues at the Dún an Óir estate in Kanturk was a model of best practice.

“I’d have to give council officials great credit for sorting this estate out,” he said.

Permission was granted for the construction of up to 60 homes on the banked site just outside Kanturk, towards the end of the property boom.

But when the economic crash hit, construction ground to a halt before the estate was complete.

Following years spent working their way through complex legal issues, a site resolution plan was agreed with Cork County Council and six unfinished homes which were deemed dangerous structures were demolished.

This part of the estate has been landscaped and returned to ‘green-field status’; footpaths have been completed; and the council has recently sanctioned plans for the installation of a pedestrian crossing outside the estate.

“Officials have been exemplary in their dealing with this. The estate is really getting there now. It just shows what can be done in these kinds of situations,” Mr Moynihan said.