Wexford County Council can’t ‘plan for the future’ unless it knows how many houses will be built at widescale development

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Efforts to uncover the number of houses scheduled to be built in one of Gorey’s biggest ever developments have once again proved unsuccessful despite the repeated queries of one local councillor. At the September meeting of the Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District (GKMD), Councillor Darragh McDonald was once again thwarted in his quest to discover the exact number of homes due to be built at the St Walleran’s site.

“I haven’t been able to get the overall numbers, however, phase one will be 40 units and they will be social houses,” he was informed by the housing officer. “Those 40 units will go to tender in the coming weeks. After that the housing capital team will be reviewing the potential for affordable houses at the site.”

The reluctance to put a number on the proposed scheme led Cllr McDonald to question how the council could effectively plan for the future without knowing the population of the town and surrounding areas.

“It’s concerning that we’re supposed to be making decisions about the Gorey district and we don’t know how many houses are going in here. How can we make decisions on infrastructure? How can the schools plan ahead? We pur chased a significant piece of land and we don’t know how many houses are going to be built on it.

"Can I get that figure before the next meeting? I shouldn’t have to wait so long for this.”

He was supported by party colleague Anthony Donohue who noted that it would be impossible for Wexford County Council (WCC) to continue building houses at St Walleran’s without informing Uisce Éireann (UE) of its plans.

“The site isn’t serviced by UE at the moment so it will need to know how many houses are going to be built there,” said Cllr Donohue. “St Walleran’s will have to have water capacity for whatever number of houses we plan to build.”