A Carlow councillor has described the decision to cut the number of planned social housing units at a Tullow development by nearly half as “devastating”.
Councillor Will Paton says he was left “very, very disappointed” after learning that 22 of the 48 homes at Foran’s Way on the Carlow Road will now be sold privately instead.
Carlow County Council told Mr Paton that rising construction costs is the reason.
“The management team of Carlow County Council knew about this in recent weeks and failed to tell the elected members that. I think that’s disgusting. We should have been told immediately.” said Mr Paton.
“I’m even much more disappointed for the people on the toll housing list who had their hopes built up of getting a house in their hometown. And now instead of 48 social houses being allocated, only 26 units will be allocated for social use.” he added.
This was his statement:
𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐫𝐞. 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐍’𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐘, 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎𝐖 𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐃, 𝐓𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖
In the past few minutes, I have received the following devastating news from the Chief Executive of Carlow County Council. He writes as follows,
“𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒗𝒊𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒕 22 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 48 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒆. 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒚 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒍 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒊𝒗𝒆 26 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒖𝒔𝒆. 𝑶𝒃𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚, 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 48 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒗𝒊𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚.
𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑻𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘, 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈. 𝑰𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑻𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒊𝒙 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒏’𝒔 𝑾𝒂𝒚 𝑫𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕.
𝑾𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒆. 𝑴𝒚 𝒂𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔.”
I am very, very disappointed by this news and I can’t understand why as an Elected Member I was not informed of this information long before now. I am even more disappointed for the people on the Tullow Housing List who had their hopes built up. Please accept my sincere apologies in this matter.
