HOUSING PLAN FOR MALLOW EYESORE
PLAN BEING PUT IN PLACE TO REVITALISE MALLOW SITE THAT HAS BEEN IDLE FOR YEARS
OFFICIALS with Cork County Council have been urged to redevelop the site of the former Willis Flats in Mallow, which has lain idle since the complex was torn down in 2009.
The issue was raised in a motion by Cllr John Paul O’Shea (Ind) at the June meeting of the council’s northern committee, in which he called for an update on future plans for the Ballydaheen site and if consideration was being given to building new housing units there.
“As a council we are considering options to build houses in different parts of the county, including Mallow, and we have an ideal site here that could very easily be put to good use,” said Cllr O’Shea.
He pointed out that it is centrally located and already has access to services such as water.
“It has become a sight for sore eyes, with horses grazing on it. But, I believe there is an opportunity for the council to look at the site and invest in it for new housing,” said Cllr O’Shea.
Seconding the motion Cllr Melissa Mullane (SF) pointed out that her predecessor in Mallow Town Council, Cllr Willie O’Regan, has raised the issue of the site on numerous occasions.
She said that at the time there was talk of a scheme to develop single story units for single men on the site.
“I know a housing agency also looked at the site, but nothing came of this either and it has now become something of an eyesore. As Cllr O’Shea pointed out the site is linked to services and is in close walking distance to the town centre so would be lovely to see a housing development going in there,” she said.
The council’s acting head of housing, Padraig Barrett said the authority was “currently assessing the site and developing a number of options for its future development.”
He said there was normally a “variety of reasons” as to why a site would be left lying idle for a number of years, pointing out that this particular site “had a variety of issues unique to it.”
While he did not go into any detail in relation to these issues, Mr Barrett did say that the authority was working to address them.
“We are working on a scheme, but it is not the easiest of sites to develop as it is lying idle for a particular set of reasons that we are trying to unlock, by looking at the issue from a different perspective in the context of the wider community,” said Mr Barrett.
“It may not just be a case of looking at that site in isolation, maybe looking at it as part of a neighbourhood scheme.
Hopefully, we will be in a position to bring details of a scheme for the site to this committee in the coming months,” he added