Old bank building has become 'blight' on Mayo town

A Claremorris councillor has called for the Old Bank building on Lower James Street in the town to be de-listed as a protected structure to allow the site to be developed for housing.

Cllr Richard Finn told last week's council meeting that the developers are now the subject of a derelict tax fine, having waited three years to develop apartments on the site. 

"I have discussed it with the area engineer and we are all of the same opinion that something has to be done with it. The developers are there ready to spend their money. They previously looked for 28 apartments and were asked to come down to 22, then down to 17. 

"Now any developer, even as a charitable organisation, won’t develop unless there is a pound in it for them. 

“The only option now is to seek a de-listing of the building as a protected structure. The community of Claremorris is totally embarrassed with this building. We all are and we can’t seem to get any progress on it."

Cllr Patsy O’Brien seconded the motion saying the issue goes back as far as 2014 when the future of the building was the subject of a lengthy discussion at a public meeting in the town.

“These people want to do something about it and they are being penalised. This is not an easy job but we need your support at the top table to make sure we put this back into use so that some people will live there, it will be their home, and we can take people off the housing list.” 

Council chief executive Kevin Kelly agreed there was a “planning history on the site” but that it was not a straightforward project in terms of design, density and access. He said there was clarity needed to ascertain whether it was a listed building and if that was responsible for preventing its development.

“That is not clear to me at this point in time. We all want to see this site developed but it has to be done in an appropriate way and within guidelines. As a protected structure there would be a statutory process to be followed for it to be removed from the list and I am not sure that can be initiated by the members."

Mr Kelly proposed that a report be prepared outlining the protection issues and its impact on the site.

Cllr Michael Burke commented that there are a lot of listed buildings around the county that people won’t touch because they are too expensive to develop. He suggested a full review to establish whether some of the buildings on the list should be there or not and whether other buildings should be on it.

Cllr Damien Ryan said the building was "a blight on the town and needs to be moved on". He opposed the idea of another report and instead asked that the item remain on the agenda for the March meeting of the council, with the chief executive agreeing to have more information for councillors by then.