Lack of sewerage infrastructure is holding back housing development in north Sligo

COUNCILLORS and would be homeowners in north Sligo are facing what was dubbed a ‘chicken and egg’ situation when it comes to building houses in the area because Uisce Éireann doesn’t have a remit to provide wastewater facilities to what have been described as “unsewered settlements” such as the village of Rathcormac.

Grange-based councillor, Marie Casserly, said people living in villages like Rathcormac in north Sligo are being held back from building homes in the area they come from due to the absence of vital sewage/wastewater facilities.

However, she said there is some hope that this may change with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage announcing the funding of a wastewater scheme targeting the wastewater collection and treatment needs of villages and settlements without access to public water services.

The obligations to follow this scheme are made by the local authority to the Department, so Cllr Casserly has pledged to now ask Sligo County Council to start this process, but added the road ahead was a long one. Despite this, she said it was time to start the ball rolling.

Cllr Casserly told colleagues at Monday’s meeting of the Sligo/ Drumcliff municipal district that the absence of a sewerage system in Rathcormac village was a classic caveat stopping the erection of new houses.

“Time and again we’re told Uisce Éireann can’t get involved unless there is a public wastewater infrastructure in place, and in Rathcormac there isn’t,” she said as she reacted to a reply from Uisce Éireann which effectively confirmed that point,” she said.

Cllr Casserly received a reply which stated there was “no public wastewater infrastructure present in this area, the settlements in the area are regarded as unsewered,” and that critically “Uisce Éireann, currently has no remit in the area for the provision of new wastewater infrastructure to unsewered settlements.”

However, the reply also confirmed how the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage announced the funding of a wastewater scheme targeting the wastewater collection and treatment needs of villages and settlements without access to public water services. The obligations to follow this scheme are made by the local authority to the Department.

The reply continued that if an application was successful then Uisce Éireann “would work with the authorities to support the development and implementation of an appropriate solution”.

Cllr Casserly said the reply was stating that there was a facility for local authorities to apply for funding, which she accepted was a process that would take a few years, but she asked that Sligo County Council would “start that process” by asking the local authority in Sligo to apply to the Department for funding for a new wastewater treatment plant in Rathcormac.

She said she would now put that request on the agenda of the next

Council meeting to request that the “process” begins because there is “such a huge need” for this infrastructure in Rathcormac which was such a “big area with a huge catchment area”.

She said the biggest issue facing councillors is that when families are looking for planning permission on their own farms, to live in their own villages, they cannot get planning because of the lack of wastewater treatment in rural areas in particular.

“Rathcormac is a prime example of this, it is the perfect location for a new wastewater facility. The funding is there, so we need to get this started,” she said.

In response officials from Sligo County Council said they would look at starting this process.

Cllr Donal Gilroy said they were looking “quite a distance” down the road for the infrastructure to be provided but Cllr Casserly said some of the Departments had an excuse to say no - “an easy out” but she was heartened that there was “at least a process in existence that could change things”.

Mr Jim Molloy, Director of Services, Sligo County Council agreed that anywhere that is unsewered it is in Sligo Council’s interest to pursue making this change. “The more we can reduce those areas that are unsewered the better,” he added.

Cllr Casserly added: “Rathcormac is the ideal place to have this happen. If a housing estate is built, because the infrastructure is there that will allow people to live in the villages or near to where they were born.”