Social housing estate plan is unsustainable
Fingal council is planning to depart from best practice by promoting a social housing ghetto in fast-growing Donabate.
The council has just produced a local area plan for Donabate which sets out how the seaside village will grow by 250% to a population of 25,000 over the next 10 years.
But disgracefully, the plan places all the social housing in the Ballymastone part of Donabate.
This is unfair to people in social housing. It flies in the face of Government objectives and policy. It is also unsustainable.
Concentrating all the social housing in this way is likely to lead to a sink estate phenomenon.
As many as 7,000 people could end up living in Ballymastone.
Putting all of Donabateâs social housing in a single new development is at variance with the Planning and Development Act 2000 which aims to encourage private developers to provide up to 20% of the houses they are building for social and affordable needs.
It would be better to spread social housing throughout Donabate and evenly across the rest of north Co Dublin, rather than concentrating so much of it in just one estate.
By putting all the social housing (what was previously called council housing) in just one housing area, Fingal planners are letting developers off the hook.
A public meeting will be held on April 26 in Donabate Community Centre to review the plan.
Garry Grogan
108 Somerton
Donabate
Co Dublin
