Paul Murphy
Councillors in the Kells Municipal District have been briefed on a proposed new social housing project for Riverside Carnaross. The development is one of a number of small infill developments around the county being designed by Meath County Council. These developments are being planned for Carnaross and also in Kells. It is hoped to get five new bungalows into a space at Riverside, three one-bed and two two-bed units. All will be universally designed and will accommodate senior citizens or people with disabilities. The councillors of the MD were being consulted to see if they had any suggestions to make about the design.
Fine Gael Cllr Sarah Reilly, pictured above, welcomed the briefing. She said she knew the estate and she was sure the extra accommodation to be provided there would be very welcome. She said there was a limited amount of green space in the estate and she wondered if the council would be compliant in the amount of green space it was to allocate. Independent Cllr David Gilroy asked who would carry out maintenance on green areas.
Sinn Fein Cllr Michael Gallagher questioned the advisability of providing one-bed accommodation, stating that if an elderly person needed a relative or carer to stay with them, it wouldn’t be possible. His SF colleague Cllr Peter Caffrey said he welcomed the Carnaross development but quipped that he would much prefer to see the Oldcastle development done first.
Cathaoirleach Cllr Sean Drew said he knew that one-bed provision was a stipulation of the Government but added that at a recent Age Friendly conference in Athboy, the advisability of providing one-bed accommodation units had been questioned. However, he said he would not like to go against the provision of any housing, whether one-bed or two-bed. He said that in the development plan for the area, the proposed estate was outside the urban area and was located in what was designated a rural area. He asked the question whether the urban area should be extended outwards on both sides of the road.
In reply to queries about the maintenance of open spaces, a council official said that as far as possible the council tried to keep open spaces “as low maintenance as possible”. They would often ask residents themselves to maintain green spaces. In reply to questions about the placement of solar panels, he said that putting solar panels in depended on the BER rating of housing. If they could get the BER rating right this would eliminate the need for the panels. The official said that the amount of space available at Riverside was tight but they might look at turning one of the one-bed houses into two-bed accommodation.
