Calls to purchase green areas in Wexford housing estate amid fears of overdevelopment in rural village

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Finding the balance between building houses in Co Wexford’s villages and ensuring areas don’t become overdeveloped was to the forefront of Councillor Jim Codd’s mind at the September meeting of the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD).

While Cllr Codd and his colleagues have repeatedly called upon Wexford County Council (WCC) to build more houses in the district’s rural areas there are limits to everything. Two of those limits exist in the Hazelwood housing estate in Bridgetown.

“There’s two green areas in Hazelwood in the middle of an urban-style housing development,” said the Aontú councillor. “Those two green areas are currently being maintained by the people of the estate.

"I have previously appealed to the council to purchase those areas when they came up for sale, it didn’t do so and now I understand there’s interest from another developer who would build additional houses there.”

With children from the housing estate using the greens as play areas, Cllr Codd once more asked WCC to purchase the land on behalf of the residents.

“I would resist any further development in an area where people are already crammed together. I appreciate we have a need for housing but I’m not sure there’s a need to take those two areas.”