Council urged to go ahead with Strandhill upgrading
THE Council has been urged not to wait any longer on realigning and upgrading the Top Road in Strandhill.
Cllr Chris MacManus, who tabled a motion on the issue, wants to see them use the €120,000 collected in development contributions so far on the works. He urged them to start a process of consultation with local residents immediately.
“We have to get some element of structure. We can’t be holding out on the ‘never never’ of the possibility of future development.
“When will work start? We know the works need to be done and that consultations will have to take place.
“When are we going to start spending the money that has been allocated?” he asked Senior Engineer Tom Brennan.
He was told in response that €120,000 in fees had been gathered to date but that it would cost between €200,000 - €250,000 to do the works, “not including land acquisition.”
Mr Brennan told the meeting that there “may be another €75,000 to come from future developments”, two in particular.
“What I’m hearing again is the ‘possibility’ of planning applications coming in. The planners can’t give commitments on those planning conditions. I heard this six months ago,” he said. “I don’t want to come in, in six months’ time and hear the same again,” he said.
“At what point do we get off this pot of money and use it?” he wondered.
He pointed out that if a planning application came in the next day, the Council may still not see any development contribution from the developer for 12-18 months.
“I’m not happy with this hedging of our bets. What we’re doing is pushing the needed works down the road on the possibility that there ‘may’ be future developments,” he said.