Concerns as overgrown Moongate site is cleared
A PROMINENT, overgrown site on the Clonard Road has been cleared by a developer who recently acquired the property which had been served with a HSE order under the Rats and Mice (Destruction) Act.
The site of the former Moongate House, which was demolished under the Dangerous Structures Act by Council order in 2011, was cleared last Thursday and Friday by new owners Oakmore Developments Ltd of Wexford which also removed non-native Macrocarpa trees in consultation with the ESB and Wexford County Council.
According to Oakmore director Darragh Ryan, no specimen trees were interfered with and all the trees along the side and back boundaries were retained.
Mr Ryan, who with John Hayes, is also a director of sister company H&R Chartered Homes which has built the new Chestnut Hill estate in Killeens, was responding to concerns raised by local residents about the sudden clearance of the site and the removal of trees last week.
Cllr George Lawlor who was contacted by residents, said he had previously asked for overhanging trees to be trimmed and cut but not for them to be ‘completely and totally removed’.
‘The site has been completely cleared without any notice or discussion with the adjoining residents who would have enjoyed a level of privacy from them. Some of the trees would have been close to 100 years old. That they were removed in one fell swoop was shocking’.
‘The trees are gone now and they can’t be put back. It was a development site so something was obviously going to happen there but prior to any development, there should be discussions with the residents about planting, in the interests of good planning and from a goodwill point of view.’
Mr Ryan said an intensive landscaping plan will be submitted with a planning application for the two-acre site, where it is proposed to build a townhouse development.
Oakmore Developments Ltd recently bought the site which has been derelict for several years, with complaints about it being used as a dumping ground. It came with an order from the HSE for it to be cleared under the Mice and Rats Act and the process of removing rubbish and debris was ongoing this week. A hoarding was placed around the site to prevent any further dumping.
Mr Ryan said the trees were removed in consultation with the ESB and Wexford County Council as they were overhanging and dangerously close to electricity lines and the ESB organised a shut-down of power last Friday to facilitate the work.
‘We’re hoping to get planning permission to build a high quality residential town house development there. We do not want to leave the site as it is. We’re hoping to finalise plans as soon as is practically possible.’
Moongate House, formerly owned by Alan and Noreen Hynes was demolished in 2011 by order of Wexford Borough Council, after it fell into a derelict state. At the height of the property boom, it was valued at €3.9 million.
A few years earlier, in 2008, the couple appealed to An Bord Pleanála against a Wexford County Council decision to refuse planning permission for a townhouse development and a change of use and extension to Moongate, which was built in 1938 and was on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. An Bord Pleanála turned down the project and said the proposed alterations to the house were unacceptable.
The appeals board noted at the time that mature trees on the site were of ‘significant amenity value to the local area’ and ‘the subject of a Tree Preservation Order in the Wexford Town and Environs Development Plan 2002.’