Councillors ‘grossly misled’ on site for social housing

A LARGE question mark looms over a plan to build 16 social housing units at a site in Kanturk following a claim by a local residents association that county councillors were ‘grossly misled’ in relation to the size of the site.

The Kanturk/Mallow municipal district committee had voted to adopt the plan, albeit with some reluctance, after queries were raised about the density of housing planned for the site at Bluepool.

Now it has emerged that the Upper Bluepool Residents Association has called for the vote to be declared “null and void”, claiming that an independent survey had established an error had been made in calculating the area of the site. The county council was planning on building the 16 units based on a site size of 0.9 hectares - however, the residents association say the site is just shy of 0.9 acres.

FLEETFOOTED locals over the age of 60 from the Blarney area have been issued with an open invitation to strut their stuff on the dance floor in competition organised by TY students from a local school.

With ‘Dancing with the Stars’ mania sweeping the nation, students from Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal are set to stage their own version of the popular RTÉ show under the banner of their Young Social Innovators ( YSI) project.

Their ‘Strictly Come Dancing – Over 60s’ will see twinkle-toed dancers take to the floor at the Blarney Park Hotel on Wednesday March 14 for a gala dance-off.

Ahead of this the students will be holding a ‘meet and greet’ event at the school next Tuesday from 1.30pm -2.30pm during which they will conduct the all-important business of partnering up participants and offer people an insight into why they are hosting the competition.

Student spokesperson Alison said that while the competition will be a fun event, it will also be making a serious point about how society views not just older people but also teenagers.

“Our project is about combating stereotypes. Our team got the sensed there was an image that people over 60 may not be very active and this event is a fun way of showing people how much they can still do,” she said.

“We also think that young people today are generally viewed as being addicted to their phones or lazy. We aim to prove this is not true by showing how we as a group have come together to made this idea a reality through hard work, planning and team effort,” she added.

Admission to the March 14 dance off will be €10, with proceeds from the event going to charity.