Kilcoyne walk-out

Kilcoyne walks out over estates

Áine Ryan

A ROW over procedures to force builders to complete housing estates led to Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne storming out of Castlebar Town Council chamber last week. During the heated debate, Cllr Johnny Mee observed that, in the past, due to the ineptitude of builders ‘we’ve had cases of human excrement flowing onto the streets’ of the county town.
In a submission to the Draft Castlebar and Environs Development Plan 2008-2014, Cllr Kilcoyne proposed the following amendment: “All developers will be required through the granting of planning permission to lodge, with the Council, cash bonds equal to ten per cent of the value of the development and this bond shall only be refunded when the planning permission has been complied with in full and the estate has been taken in charge by the Council.”
On the other hand, Town Manager, Mr Seamus Granahan argued that such an amendment was unworkable since it specified precise amounts of monies.
“I have an issue with percentages. Percentage of what? We want to encourage development. A builder comes in and builds houses valued at €250,000 and we take €25,000 for each house. So we have a half million of his money for five years,” observed Mr Granahan.
Nonetheless, Cllr Kilcoyne insisted that if ‘the developer complies with the conditions of his planning permission, he will get his money back’. He added ‘we’re either serious about this, or we’re not’.
Arguing that the development plan ‘is a policy plan, and is not meant to deal with financial controls’, the Manager strongly advised against the adoption of the amendment. Instead, he proposed the following: “Castlebar Town Council shall take over estates in accordance with a formal Estate Take-Over Policy to be adopted by the Council which shall take into account issues relating to cash deposits and bonds. Castlebar Town Council require that only a cash deposit shall be accepted as security/bond for the proper completion of the development.”
As the row rumbled on, Cllr Kilcoyne was accused of ‘playing to the gallery and the press’,  while Cllr Blackie Gavin also said he was ‘not the only councillor fighting for the take-over of estates. This Council has spent a fortune going back over estates’.
“There are 28 estates not taken over in this town, Look out the Westport Road at developments left without manhole covers,” quipped Kilcoyne.
“I can go back to 1974 when a man [builder] walked away from an estate with unfinished sewerage and footpaths. That same gentleman came back and got another planning application and another one. We’ve had cases of human excrement  lowing on to the streets of Castlebar,” said Cllr Johnny Mee, supporting Kilcoyne’s amendment.
Meanwhile Sinn Féin’s Cllr Noel Campbell noted it was ‘one of the biggest issues the councillors had before them’ and that the Town Council chamber was the proper forum in which to resolve it.
“I’m looking for a stick to force developers to finish estates,” said Cllr Campbell, also supporting Kilcoyne’s amendment.
Ultimately, Mayor Eugene McCormack used his casting vote in favour of Mr Granahan’s proposal.
Before Cllr Kilcoyne withdrew from the chamber in protest, he warned that in a few months’ time councillors will have to face those people who have been the victims of shoddy development work.