Village capacity is raised with district council
AVAILABILITY of land and the capacity of treatment plants are two of the main determining factors when it comes to Wexford County Council looking at areas to expand its housing stock.
At this months meeting of Enniscorthy Municipal District Council, Cllr Aidan Browne, asked officials ‘ how many villages are there where we have capacity to build houses?’.
In response, Martina Donoghue, from the housing department, said the local authority is limited by capacity in treatment plants and ‘also by land as well’.
‘If land is there could we still build houses?’ asked Cllr Browne.
‘No,’ replied Ms Donoghue. Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy, then commented: ‘Irish Water says the County Council does not have the demand but the County Council says it doesn’t have the capacity’.
‘We need to build houses in all of our villages,’ said Cllr Murphy.
‘If Irish Water thinks we don’t have a demand they will not provide an expansion to our water treatment plants,’ she added.
Cllr Murphy went on to comment: ‘Land can be got if we wanted it.’
She also said ‘ it’s as cheap to build in the country as it is in town’.
Senior Executive planner, Deirdre Kearns, told the meeting that Irish Water wants the local authority to identify what villages developments will take place in.
However, she said the local authority is hesitant to do that because there is no guarantee the areas marked will be developed as planned.
The Cathaoirleach, Cllr Kathleen Codd-Nolan, then asked if Irish Water representatives could be invited in to meet with the members.
Some members didn’t profess too much hope for that to happen, however, with Cllr John O’Rourke commenting: ‘You can’t get them on the phone.’