CONCERNS RAISED OVER LEDWIDGE HALL PROCESS
MEATH County Council has offered to facilitate a meeting between representatives of the residents of Ledwidge Hall in Slane and the Oaklee Housing Association in a bid to iron out concerns in relation to a new 28-home plan at the estate.
It comes after Oaklee acquired the 28 homes as turnkey units after an agreement with the developer.
Residents have expressed grave reservations about how the process was undertaken and the fact that all the social housing units will now be in one block. They have asked has this become a new council policy.
The matter came before Meath CC recently, attended by estate representatives.
Cllr Paddy Meade feels the proposed development goes against the integrated living model - that social housing should be intermixed within private estates, to remove any ‘social stigma’ with children growing up in a ‘ shared society’.
He says not all the 28 families who will receive offers of homes in Slane will want to live there - but there is a solution to that.
He says the council own land in places like rural Slane, Monknewtown, Dowth, Rosnaree, Lobinstown, Newtown and others and they could be best served by building small pockets of homes there to meet local needs and not transfer everyone in towns and villages.
He wants to see locals living locally, backed by family support networks.
He says taking over the likes of the Ledwidge Hall development for social housing - in one block - now denies Slane people the chance to buy a home in their village. They must remain renting in places from Navan to Drogheda. ‘ These people are now excluded from this development - this is unfair,’ he states.
Meath CC say their position is pretty simple. They supported the application by Oaklee to enter a commercial agreement with the developer. Funding was approved by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.
But they say, due to the ‘ many concerns that have been raised’, and in a bid to alleviate such concerns, in particular, estate management, they’ll facilitate a meeting between the residents and Oaklee so that a ‘clear line of communication’ can be put in place in respect of how the units will be managed.
But councillors have reservations about the process.
‘When an approved housing body wants to buy a scheme, we should be told...People should be made aware of what’s being built in an area’
Cllr Sharon Tolan said she was in favour of social housing schemes, but she said there was a ‘ lack of transparency’ about this and it was unfair to residents.
She said people knew about plans at Shepard’s Lodge in Bettystown and at the Narroways, but this wasn’t the case in Slane.
‘When an approved housing body wants to buy a scheme, we should be told. It’s unfair to land these things on people’s laps. People should be made aware of what’s being built in an area. These schemes should come before municipal districts.’
Cllr Stephen McKee agreed, saying there was a wider issue about how housing associations are putting in applications and they must come before elected reps
‘If it’s 10% of homes in an estate, that’s ok, but a large amount of houses bought in one estate needs a consultation process and people just can’t find out by chance.’
Cllr Elaine McGinty said it was ‘an exercise in bad communication.’
Cllr Wayne Harding had raised the matter, asking for a discussion between all the parties.
He said it wasn’t about social housing, but how things can go wrong with such plans.
‘Residents are concerned that things could change,’ he stated.
He said Slane was a thriving village, but the wrong allocation can cause big problems.
He said he only learned of the Oaklee proposal when local residents contacted him about the plan.