New houses in Nenagh are advertised to let

New residents will soon be moving into Nenagh's Cormack Drive estate following completion of a controversial social housing development.

Tipperary Co Council recently informed local representatives of completion of the construction of 12 houses in the estate, which are now now available for letting. Six of the new houses have been advertised on the Choice-Based Letting (CBL) scheme.

All of the properties are two-beds units - four bungalows and two two-storey houses.

The council has sought expressions of interest in occupying the new houses through the CBL system.

While the current residents of Cormack Drive bear no ill will towards the new arrivals, they remain angry over the situation that led to construction of the houses. Residents of Cormack Drive and St Conlon's Road attempted to mount a legal challenge to the council's plan to build the houses in 2020. They took issue with a wide range of aspects of the plan, including perceived flaws in the ‘Part 8’ public consultation process; they also referenced an agreement made between the old Nenagh Urban District Council and local residents' representatives, stating that no further social dwellings would be added to the 80-house Cormack Drive estate.

PROHIBITIVE COSTS

With the houses now complete, Cormack Drive residents spokesman Michael Ryan said people in the estate have been left feeling apathetic. He described the public consultation process as a “joke”, saying concerns raised by residents in relation to issues such as loss of amenity space, traffic problems, absence of consideration more suitable sites, and shortcomings with the Part 8 process itself, were ignored.

“We all made submissions - none of them were taken into account,” Mr Ryan said.

He recalled how the residents sought a High Court injunction to prevent the building of the houses. But he said they would have needed to raise around €20,000 just to bring their case to court.

This put the fight beyond the residents in a case that Mr Ryan said highlights how difficult it is for communities to objectively engage with local authority plans.

“You can't go to An Bord Pleanála. Your only recourse is to get a judicial review. That means hiring barristers and senior counsels to go into the High Court.

“Ordinary people can't take that on because the cost is prohibitive. That was the most maddening part of the whole thing.”

Once construction got underway, Mr Ryan said the houses were quickly brought to a level where the residents felt there was no longer a point in fighting to have them taken down. “We all know that houses are needed and that would have been the greatest waste of time of all. If you got to the stage where houses that were nearly complete had to be taken down - none of us wanted that.

“But the situation was that we could not raise enough money to get an injunction to stop them and then go into the High Court to find out who was right or wrong before the building got too far advanced. That to me is the problem with this Part 8 - the people that it's supposed to help, all it really does is hinder them. It's the most undemocratic thing I've ever come across.

“We will have councillors coming around looking for votes again soon, and the one thing I will ask them all is: ‘What will ye do about Part 8?’ That's my question to every councillor out there. How, in the name of God, can ordinary Joe Soaps take on a High Court expense?”

DONATIONS RETURNED

The residents did raise over €12,000 in their campaign to challenge the housing plan in court. Mr Ryan said most of this money has been given back to those who contributed. It was not possible to return all of it as some donations were made anonymously and some of the amounts were very small. Several hundred euros had to be spent on preliminary legal fees.

Now that the houses are complete and new residents will soon be moving into them, Mr Ryan - who pointed out that there was no mistreatment of the builders during construction, despite the residents' anger - said those who have been living in the area for years would try to live alongside the new occupants in harmony.

“I wish the people coming into them all the best of luck in the world,” he said of those taking up residence in the new houses. “The Cormack Drive residents committee and the residents as a whole wish everyone all the best. There is no animosity towards them or the builders.”