No building work taking place in Shinrone

Cllr Peter Ormond told the recent meeting of Birr MD that there is absolutely no building work, whether private or Council, taking place in the village of Shinrone at the moment, nor in a number of other villages in Offaly.

He said the Part V housing arrangement is not working in the villages at the moment.

Under Part V of the Planning and Development Acts it is a requirement of planning permission for new housing developments that a certain portion of the land - up to 20% - be reserved to meet the need for social and affordable housing.

Part V enables local authorities to achieve this strategy by requiring housing developers to enter into an agreement, with the appropriate Local Authority, to provide houses, fully or partially serviced sites, or land or an equivalent monetary contribution for the purposes of Social and Affordable Housing. It also sets out the terms of such agreements and the manner in which compensation will be decided.

“We have brought in a number of developers to Shinrone,” said Cllr Ormond, “and they are just walking away. They are saying the building materials are too costly. This is putting added pressure on the Council to buy houses.”

The councillor said the private housing market is in a far from healthy condition at present.

Senior Engineer John Cunningham said the level of building activity in smaller towns and villages is very low. “There's a nice bit of activity in Tullamore, and a reasonable bit in Edenderry. Those two places are well ahead of the rest of the county.

  Cllr Peter Ormond said housing activity in Birr used to be ahead of Edenderry, but this situation has been reversed.

  "Overall, it's a very bad situation at the moment regarding housing in South Offaly," he remarked. "Private housing development is simply not happening in the villages. Social housing activity is not where it should be, and it's very hard to find a place to rent."