Cork City Council gives green light for 155 homes despite infrastructure concerns

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Cork City Council has voted to approve plans for 155 social and affordable homes in Lehenaghmore on the southside of the city despite concerns voiced by residents and councillors about serious infrastructure deficits in the area.

The proposed development between the N40 and Cork airport will consist of 107 houses, 8 duplex units and 40 apartments as well as a 42-child creche and 207 parking spaces. Eighty-eight of the homes will be made available for sale privately under an affordable housing scheme and the remainder will be provided for social housing. The buildings will range in height from two to four storeys and will be built for the city council under a project agreement with a developer.

The council received 55 submissions on the scheme, with concerns voiced that the existing road network does not have the capacity for an additional 155 homes. Residents said they have been waiting indefinitely for road upgrades and the area lacks amenities and facilities.

Councillors voted 27 to one to approve the scheme. Cllr Joe Lynch said he supports the development because it will provide much-needed housing but pointed to the serious infrastructure issues in Lehenaghmore.

“There is no childcare, there's no educational facilities, the traffic is chronic, roads are still unsafe even if progress is now moving forward in that respect, there's no playground. It has been the worst of Celtic Tiger planning and people do feel ignored and they do feel neglected and I don't blame them,” the Sinn Fein councillor said.

Cllr Albert Deasy (Independent) also criticised the lack of facilities in the area. “You've no shops, no public houses, no church, no community centre, no doctor’s surgery. There is nothing there to serve 1,100 people who live in absolute congestion,” he said.

Cllr Sean Martin (Fianna Fail) said the city council is investing €17m into infrastructure in the area and he blamed Cork County Council for not investing in places such as Lehenaghmore that were under its control before the 2019 city boundary extension.

“I think we should also put in the record the fact that these infrastructure deficits come from the county. All of them. Every single one of them has come from the county and landed on our plate here. I think up to now definitely we're paying dearly for some of the county areas that have come in here because the money was handed back to the developer by the county council because they sat on it for 10 years,” he said.

The city council has agreed that upgrades are required to the local infrastructure in Lehenaghmore. A road improvement project commenced there in August and is due to be completed in approximately 18 months.