New Year, new start for Parkside

New Year, new start for Parkside


St Patrick’s Estate €13m revamp to start next month

Anna-Marie Flynn

BALLINA’s long-awaited St Patrick’s Estate regeneration project will commence next month – one year after €12.9 million was allocated to the development.
Director of Services with Ballina Town Council, Paul Benson, confirmed last week that construction workers will be on site in January.
Speaking at a meeting of Ballina Electoral Area committee last Friday, Mr Benson allayed fears that the grant would be withdrawn due to economic circumstances. “Obviously we have less money than we had this time last year and funding has been cut in housing projects across the area in accordance with that. For example in the voluntary housing sector very little is expected to happen this year, but one project that is certainly not at issue whatsoever is St Patrick’s Estate. That will be going ahead with workers on site in January.”
Mr Benson added that construction workers will move into the area as soon as this week for preliminary works such as the construction of a site office and other preparatory aspects of the project. “It is great to have such a large scale development going on in the town and despite all the doom and gloom, it is encouraging to see this commencing,” he said.
The news comes after 12 months of uncertainty for residents of the area who were left in limbo after they failed to see work start since the allocation of monies by Minister for Housing, Michael Finneran, on January 30 last.
Since then, residents have feared that the allocation or multi-million planned project would fall through after they did not see progress during the summer months when an initial start date had been scheduled.
Ballina-based Minister, Dara Calleary, who has been a driving force in lobbying for the project, has welcomed the commencement of the development.