Organisers collect over 1,300 signatures opposing plan for Limerick town
OVER 1,300 people have signed a petition entitled “Stop modular homes in Kilmallock - our systems are overloaded”.
Cllr PJ Carey said he received the signatures on Sunday from a number of residents of the town's Radharc na Cille housing estate who organised the petition.
The plan, being led by the Office of Public Works (OPW), is to construct 30 two-bed semi-detached units for Ukrainians fleeing the ongoing war. They will have a 60-year lifespan, with each accommodating a family of four.
The units are to be located on council-owned lands at the rear of Radharc Na Cille subject to successful site tests, including an environmental impact assessment.
Cllr Carey praised the group of residents for the “dignified manner that they have conducted themselves in seeking a democratic mandate”.
“I fully support their right to have a voice in the absence of a normal planning process. I believe that no development should go ahead without a full planning process. This emergency legislation is the lrish government's response to its own lack of preparedness and dire lack of housing going back to an EU directive in 2003.
“The petition is asking the government to stop this proposed development which is being forced on local people without any consultation. By consultation, l mean where there is input on the part of the recipient and not just giving information on decisions already taken,” said Cllr Carey, who has called on all politicians to take this petition, and these peoples clearly expressed wishes, seriously and to put democracy into action.
The Sinn Fein councillor said locals have “numerous valid concerns including a lack of services and infrastructure”.
He says the proposed development would mean a 7% increase in the population of the town overnight and a population increase of school-aged children of nearly 25%, a type of population increase that typically takes over a decade.
“This is not a strategy. It is very poor governance,” he commented.
The residents also provided a statement accompanying the petition which reads: “We, as a group of residents, feel we were given no voice or consulted on the proposed site at Radharc na Cille being used for modular homes.”
It continues: “Our concerns are valid and over time we have met with so many people with valid concerns - can’t get a doctor’s appointment or no child places available in the local school where these people reside all their lives, who have families that go back decades. Our school and health system is overloaded. We hope this does not go ahead as it will add to an already stretched system.”
The statement concludes by thanking the people of Kilmallock for their support and the residents calling for a meeting with the Minister for the OPW Patrick O’Donovan.
Cllr Carey says he intends delivering the petition to Mr O'Donovan's Newcastle West offic