Sites subsidised against advice

May 1998

WICKLOW Town Councillors defied council management this week when they decided to press ahead with the sale of eight private sites at subsidised rates.

At recent meetings, Assistant County Manager Hubert Fitzpatrick recommended that the Greenhill Road sites be sold at their market value.

This was believed to be in the region of £36,000.

However, at Monday night’s meeting of the UDC, the councillors themselves unanimously agreed that the sites should be subsidised.

They ordered the Assistant Manager to come back at the next meeting with suggestions as to how the sites can be allocated, and how much they should cost.

The meeting was told that there had been 35 applications to buy the sites and Cllr Liam Kavanagh remarked that even if eight of those were able to build their own house, it would help alleviate the housing shortage around Wicklow.

At the April meeting of the council, Mr Fitzpatrick had told the members that negotiations were under way with a view to the council purchasing more land which could then be used for the sale of subsidised private sites. However, on Monday night he said that the piece of land in question had been withdrawn from the market.

He urged the councillors to sell the eight sites at market prices, but a motion from Cllr Kavanagh to sell them at subsidised prices was backed by all the members.

‘ The idea of putting these sites up to the highest bidder will mean we have no control about who gets them,’ said Cllr Kavanagh. ‘One thing we can be sure of is that very few of the 35 people who applied will be able to afford them.’

These people wouldn’t normally qualify for local authority housing, but wouldn’t be able to buy a house on the current property market, as houses now seemed to be starting at about £100,000, he added.

Cllr John O’Brien commented that the turnover of officials at Wicklow UDC had led to a lack of forward planning, but made it clear he wasn’t criticising any of the current officals.

‘I remember when we had stability here and planned four or five years down the road, and took it on ourselves to buy land – not because we might need it tomorrow or next year, but maybe in three years time.’

Town Clerk Frank O’Toole also informed councillors that there are currently 120 people on the council housing list.

A number of houses at Greenhills will be allocated in the next six weeks and a further 20 are being built on that road, bringing the total number of council houses in that development to 48.

In addition, approval has been obtained to build five houses and five apartments at the old station house on the Murrough.