Council is accused of 'sale of the century' over land disposals

Mayo County Council has been accused of embarking on "a sale of the century" by selling its portfolio of properties at a time when land is needed for housing.

Fine Gael Cllr Peter Flynn made the comments at a recent meeting of the council's strategic policy committee (SPC) on housing, which he chairs. Cllr Flynn said elected members were regularly being asked to approve property sales.

“We cannot just be coming in and be asked to rubber-stamp the sale of our prized assets. It’s like sale of the century with the council selling off council land every month.”

The meeting had earlier heard from the local authority's Head of Housing Olivia Gallagher who listed the various landbanks the council owned that can be developed for housing. She said there are five sites in Westport with a potential for 53 units; Claremorris has four sites with a potential for 136 units; Ballina has five sites with a potential for 138 units; Swinford has 11 sites with a potential for 136 units and Castlebar has four sites with a potential for 111 units.

She explained to members that “this is not land where we have gone on site and are building out”, adding that the council was actively seeking and purchasing land across the county for building purposes, including seven additional sites with a potential for 209 units.

She said the council either identifies land itself or through government and land agencies. 

“We are also offered land from private landowners and state agencies so we use all means for the purpose of getting lands so we can do substantial builds.” 

Director of Services Tom Gilligan said the process can be frustrating at times, adding: “We have looked at a number of schemes to build, for example, we were looking at developing 13 units in Louisburgh. However, Irish Water had no capacity there and also in Newport, which is just a no-go at this stage. So there is a massive capacity issue with Irish Water in what we can deliver and we need them to come on board and put in the infrastructure needed.”

Cllr Flynn noted that the 53 units referred to in Westport included 22 at the Lodge Road, which still has no footpath and therefore cannot be developed; also the 13 houses in Louisburgh that cannot go ahead due to Irish Water, which he said brought the full total of houses that can currently be developed on council land in the Westport-Belmullet MD to just 18. 

“That is a stark message to go out today that this is the state of our housing stock. Something is clearly broken. The chief executive needs to get the message from this SPC that we want to know how are we going to deal with the shortage of land-banks right across the county. We need to identify and buy land and be really serious about this and it rests with the council executive to buy land.” 

Cllr Flynn asked Ms Gallagher for an update in six months "to see are we continuing to go backwards or is there any real progress".