Work on Quinlan Park houses to get underway shortly
Work is due to begin shortly on a new ten-home local authority housing project to be named in honour of the late Commandant (later Colonel) Pat Quinlan, who led the Irish troops during the Siege of Jadotville, the 60th anniversary of which fell on Monday last, September 13.
Costing €2.34 million, the housing development will be located to the rear of McCormack Park, in the Cornamagh area of Athlone.
A delighted Cathaoirleach of Westmeath County Council Cllr Frankie Keena (FF) was on hand to sign the contracts last week for the new housing scheme which comprises of ten homes to be built by Leitrim-based Sammon Developments.
“Work is now due to start very shortly on this €2.34m, including VAT, scheme with completion scheduled to be finished by December 2022,” Cllr Keena commented, adding that like previous developments these houses will have a very high energy rating with air to water heat pumps and a high degree of insulation.
“This is welcome news as it will help in some way in addressing the big demand for housing in the Athlone area,” he added, thanking the Capital Design Team, led by Paul Hogan, for their hard work on the project.
Last February, Leo Quinlan, son of the late Pat Quinlan, spoke of how honoured the family was by what he called a “lovely gesture” to remember his father in this way.
“When work starts in the next couple of weeks there will then be four housing developments under construction in Athlone at the one time, which is fantastic to see, with more in the pipeline,” Cllr Keena explained of the private and local authority housing schemes currently being built.
These include the private Arcadin project in Arcadia and the Bower Hill developments and a scheme of homes on the old Ward's pub site which will be acquired on completion by Westmeath County Council.
His party colleague Cllr Aengus O'Rourke said the Quinlan Park site belonged to the council and was an ideal location for a residential development. He said the council's progress on housing delivery, while slow to date, was now recovering thanks to changes brought in by Minister Darragh O'Brien.
"The Quinlan Park development will consist of six three-bedroom two-storey houses, three two-bedroom two-storey houses and one two-bedroom single-storey house. Site development works include vehicular access road at the existing site entrance adjacent to McCormack Park.
"We are slowly but surely making good progress in terms of delivery of social houses. I have always said that building social houses on public-owned land was the best and most reliable long-term solution to meeting the demands of those in need of social housing, and it guarantees better value for the taxpayer.
"My only regret has been that given the previous government's requirement for local authorities to satisfy a six-step approval process with the department before a sod could be turned, we lost many years when we should have been building, instead we were caught up in red tape. In reality, this development should have been built three years ago.
"However, the new Housing Minister, Darragh O'Brien in his 'Housing For All' plan has now put in place a 'One Step' approval process for local authorities and that is extremely good news going forward.”
The Deputy Mayor of Athlone-Moate Municipal District noted there is now a “healthy pipeline” of council-led social housing schemes on the way for Athlone, naming Rindoon where 14 units are planned, Connaught Street where five units are proposed and Abbey Road where another four units are earmarked.
He also referred to phase two of the local authority scheme in Arcadia, where 24 units are due to come on stream, along with four new homes in Thornbury Drive.
Cllr O'Rourke said the Brawny scheme is also in the pipeline with over 100 houses earmarked there for social housing.