Lord Mayor

After prolonged discussion with local residents, I support their call for voting no to the material contravention before us this evening. I agree with several of their views on the problem of increasing traffic which the development will bring to local roads. Two hundred car spaces are planned within the development.

I don’t agree with the narrative out there that the Skehard Road works are a cure to all traffic problems in the area or at the Dunkettle Roundabout. The whole area has a serious traffic problem at several times in the day. The ongoing road works give some alleviation but are not a miracle cure. Plans to build further houses in Bessboro is just not sustainable in my view. The local road infrastructure cannot take anymore cars. The development itself does not promote the use of sustainable transport.

 I am on record that I have huge concerns about the existing Mahon Local Area and the plan to pack more housing into this corner of the city despite the road infrastructure not being in place.

There is also an issue with the apartment blocks, a section of this Bessboro proposal, overlooking local resident back gardens.

I am all for building houses but in a sustainable way. The public narrative out there that I am presenting some element of Not in My Back Yard syndrome is clearly misplaced. We cannot just build houses for the sake of housing without the proper infrastructure being in place. I read with interest over the weekend that a similar call was well made in the north west by several cllrs that the proposal at the Good Shepherd is also detrimental to the roads infrastructure of the area.

For me building houses in an industrial estate is just not sustainable. It is either an industrial estate or not.
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