Councillors want double the number of house builds
COUNCILLORS appealed to management to double the local authority’s house building programme.
Cllr Michael Whelan said there is an ongoing issue for retired people in the county who are trying to buy houses.
Cllr Davy Hynes said that as the council’s housing stock is becoming depleted, ‘we need a policy to ensure that a house is built to replace a house that is provided. It should be two to one.’
Cllr Johnny Mythen said: ‘We all know how very scarce our housing stock is. When one house goes we should make available another.’
Cllr Malcolm Burne said he was concerned that the council is not inspecting sites. ‘I am concerned that we don’t have the staff resources at a time when developments are starting to happen again.’ Director of Servcies Tony Larkin said the pre-planning department is starting to creak with the heavy workjload of more complex planning applications. ‘Housing is picking up, which is a good thing, but it is causing some delays. We are also worknig on compliance applicattions and we will move to a self-certified system.’
He said the council is engaged with the bigger building sites and is very active pursuing no conformity.
Cllr Malcom Byrne said: ‘It’s very welcome that we are seeing a lot more development and more developers are building to a very high standard.’