Cork council looks at moving older tenants into homes near town centres to free up larger houses
Independent councillor Mary Linehan-Foley said a new council social housing development due to get under way at the old Spinning Wheel site in Youghal town centre would be an ideal move for older tenants living in more elevated homes in the town. Picture: Chani Anderson
Cork County Council plans to start downsizing and ‘downhilling’ elderly tenants whose children left home into smaller houses near town centres so they can more easily access amenities.
Councillors were told of the plan at a meeting of its Southern Division by senior housing directorate official MacDara Ohici in response to a query on a project in her hometown of Youghal by the Mayor of County Cork, Independent councillor Mary Linehan-Foley.
She said a new council social housing development due to get under way at the old Spinning Wheel site in the town centre would be an ideal move for older tenants living in more elevated homes in the town.
A developer is building 16 one- and two-bed properties there on behalf of the council. Planning permission was recently granted for them and construction will commence this year.
Mr Ohici said the local authority would be delighted to get hold of larger three and four-bed units from older people so they could move younger families into them.
Originally, the county council’s plans for the development of one- and two-bed homes were driven by the high demand for single people and those who had gone through martial separation.
But now there is also a clamour among older council tenants to downsize as their children have moved out of the family home, especially if they can get accommodation nearer to town centres.
“We should look at transfers for older tenants living in our houses in higher parts of the town down there,” Ms Linehan-Foley said.
“They are lovely two-bed homes and then we could put younger families into the larger units they would be vacating,” she added.
Mr Ohici said this would “make absolute sense” and it would be something the council was looking at for this development and others planned around the county, “especially when we can get larger properties back".”
Cobh is another hilly town which could benefit from relocating elderly local authority residents to lower lying areas.
Local councillors want the opening of a 57-hectare landbank, owned by the council at Newtown, for housing development.
Fine Gael councillor Sinéad Sheppard said plans needed to be progressed for this as it is estimated it could accommodate more than 1,350 badly needed housing units.
Both she and Labour councillor Cathal Rasmussen said they had been calling for a number of years for a masterplan to be developed for the site.
