Planners do U-turn on Wicklow social housing to provide for elderly and single parents
Developed as part of Bundle 6 of the NDFA's Public Private Partnership (PPP) programme, the proposed estate – named Potter's View – is on a 3.1-hectare site in Tinahask Upper, directly connecting to an approved 74 social home (Potter's Bay) development.
At the December Arklow Municipal District meeting, representatives from Wicklow County Council's (WCC) housing department and the PPP scheme outlined the designs.
Alarmed by the number of car parking space and one-bedroom homes (52), several councillors were concerned they would not meet the needs of single parents, or people who are unwell, disabled or elderly and may need a carer, family member or visitor to stay with them.
After successfully petitioning to alter the housing mix, WCC senior engineer Helena Fallon and executive engineer Aideen Klauer returned to the May Arklow MD to show councillors the amended plans.
Ms Fallon noted that the department was 'not happy' with the changes and 'took some convincing to get it over the line', with Ms Klauer saying: 'We've taken on board concerns that you raised, and one of the major ones was the mix of one-beds, which was 52 out of 128.
'The PPP have made amendments and reduced the one-beds to 38, and they've increased the two-beds from 38 to 52.
'They've done that by taking three two-story duplex blocks and swapping them for three three-story duplex blocks. So, the footprint is the same, and the number of units is the same. They've just changed the configuration.
'There was a lot of toing and froing with the department because, as you know, the figures for one-beds are almost 50pc on the housing list, but your concerns were that there were too many one-beds and not enough two beds. So, we flipped it.
'The other item was car parking spaces, and in the original design, there were 148 residential,' she added. 'We've added 14 extra residential spaces. So, taking in the creche, the creche staff spaces and drop off spaces, that's 169 parking spaces for the whole development.
'It did mean that the open space was reduced from 15.4pc to 13.7pc. So there's less open space, but there's more parking.
'Another thing to note is that we were working on the AAP1 (Action Area Plan) Master Plan with three developers in the area, and that has been approved by planning to give the bigger picture of the area.
'I enquired with the roads section about the large port/distributor road down at the bottom, which all fits into AAP1 and AAP2. They are setting up a framework for consultants, so that design will hopefully progress.'
Thanking Ms Fallon and Ms Klauer for the presentation, councillors Peir Leonard and Sylvester Bourke said they were delighted with the amendments and that their concerns were listened to, with Cllr Bourke enquiring about the possibility of more parking to the east of the Potter's View site.
Ms Klauer noted that the land was hoped to be developed for housing, with Ms Fallon saying that, since the department is funding the scheme, they have to make a strong a case as possible, adding that they 'couldn't really make a case for a car park to be east, not on land that we're eventually going to be building on'.
After Cllr Miriam Murphy expressed her desire that 'nobody should have to live in a one-bedroom home', Cllr Pat Fitzgerald highlighted the 911 people on the social housing list in Arklow, before asking about a start date for the PPP project.
'The site beside us, the 74 units, will move faster, and the intention is to put the Part 8 out for the PPP project possibly at the end of summer, which would come before the full council at the earliest in November or December,' Ms Klauer responded.
'The other thing to note is that there is an ESB capacity issue in Arklow, so we need to get the application in fast,' Ms Fallon added.
'The PPP can't apply until the Part 8 is in, so we need to get it started as soon as possible. It's an extremely serious situation, which is why we need to get this Part 8 going soon to secure the capacity.'
Responding to Cllr Warren O'Toole's query about a timeline for the 'relief road', Ms Fallon said she'd hesitate to make an estimate but, since it was a big project and a sizeable road, 'you could be talking eight years'.
Ms Fallon and Lauers' presentation culminated with an overview of a Wicklow County Council site in Barndarrig, which had a Part 8 for three group houses back in 1995. Following concerns from local residents about the rest of the site, Ms Fallon said they had promised to produce a master plan for the whole site.
'Because of planning considerations under the LAP (Local Area Plan), we'll only do a maximum of 10 homes in these villages at one time,' she continued.
'We split it up into two phases. So, phase one is three group houses, and there's going to be seven houses to the south, then phase two will be the northern side.
'Phase one, which is the first Part 8 we're going to do, is three group houses and seven social houses. Two three-beds and five two-beds for the social housing, and the three group houses will be two three-beds and one two-bed.
'The next phase is going to be 10 social houses. That's four three-beds, three two-beds, and three one-beds.
'The idea is to get a good mix for everybody in the community. The three one-beds would be particularly good for age-friendly in particular, because they're all on one level.'
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