Contracts were signed last December for the start of work on the Plovers Wood development in Lissywollen, Athlone, but construction is yet to begin. Pictured, L-R, Barry Kehoe, Chief Executive, Westmeath County Council, Cllr Liam McDaniel, Cllr Frankie Keena, and Thomas Freeman, Director, Alanna Homes.

Public meeting due before work starts on 576-home Athlone estate

Adrian Cusack

Published: Thu 3 Jul 2025, 7:21 PM

Last updated: Thu 3 Jul 2025, 7:22 PM

The developer behind the 576-unit Plovers Wood housing development planned for the Lissywollen area of Athlone said a public meeting will be held in the coming weeks to allow locals meet the manager of the construction project before it commences.

The start of site work on the single largest housing development ever planned for Athlone has been awaited for several years now, and a representative of developer Alanna Homes told the Westmeath Independent this week that a specific start date was still to be finalised.

However Thomas Freeman of Alanna Homes said it was hoped a public meeting would be taking place in Athlone around the third week of July, or thereabouts, and that the start of construction would be "imminent" at that stage.

"The idea is that I'll be bringing down the construction project manager, just to meet people, so that they'll have the face of the person on the ground," said Mr Freeman.

Planning permission was granted by An Bord Pleanála in 2021 for 576 housing units, but these are due to be built gradually, in phases, over the course of several years.

Mr Freeman said the initial phase would consist of just 28 units or so, as well as construction of the 'Lissywollen Avenue' road through the development site, which will create a new link between the Ballymahon Road roundabout and the Garrycastle area.

The planned public meeting on the project this month would be the second such gathering this year, after an information event was held at the Scoil na gCeithre Máistrí Gaelscoil, next to the development site, in early March.

Meanwhile, the developer last week lodged a new planning application with Westmeath County Council for one of the project's phases, consisting of 94 homes and also including the provision of a two-storey crèche and a 101 square metre community hub.

When asked about this planning application, Mr Freeman indicated that it had been necessitated by the fact that the five-year planning approval for the overall development in Lissywollen, which was granted in June 2021, is set to expire next year.

He said a new grant of planning approval was now being sought for this 94-home phase of the estate in order to ensure there was no planning impediment to the work taking place on that section of the site once the construction team gets to it.

The 94-home phase of the project is due to involve 63 two and three-bedroom semi-detached and terraced houses, along with 31 apartments and duplex units.

The planning application was lodged by Garrycastle Homes Ltd, trading as Alanna Homes. It states that "access to the development will be from the Garrycastle roundabout, with construction of an east-west access road through the development site, extending from the Garrycastle roundabout".

Westmeath County Council is due to make its decision on the planning application by August 19.

During the initial planning process for the 576-unit estate, in 2021, it was stated that the development would be home to more than 1,500 residents, and that 174 of the new homes would be sold to the council as social housing.