Auditor queries council Drumaconn deal

Athlone Town Council paid almost €2 million to a developer in return for road works carried out at Cornamaddy when Drumaconn housing estate, built by McInerney Homes, was being built. A new roundabout and a distributor road was built by the developer and then bought by the council, along with land, and added to council assets. However the Local Government auditor wrote in her report that these transactions were not in accordance with the "specific conditions attached to the planning permission granted" for the development. In response to the auditor's report, council management said that while the acquisition of the road and roundabout at Cornamaddy may not have been as originally intended, it reflected the practical reality of having to deal with drastically changed economic circumstances. "Athlone Town Council in granting planning permission, allowed the developer to build the roundabout and entrance road," he explained, stating it was a "complex transaction". "This infrastructure has a certain value and Athlone Town Council now owns it. It was always going to be public infrastructure... "We had no choice but to pay for it to get ownership. It was worth at least what we paid for it and now it's in our assets." He added that when planning permission is granted in the future within Cornamaddy there would be a levy imposed so that this infrastructure was paid for in time. The roundabout cost €750,000, the land for road cost €475,000 and the distributor road cost €738,645 - a total of €1,936,645. In return, the development contributions due on the 88 houses at Drumaconn, totalling €944,696 were allowed against the above works and the balance of €1,018,949 was also paid to the developer. Mayor Sheila Buckley Byrne asked how a roundabout could cost so much. "Three quarters of a million for a small roundabout seems like huge money," she said. Mr Kehoe told her that the council followed normal procedure and the job went out to tender and the council accepted the cheapest one. He said that the roundabout was built in 2007 when construction was "extremely expensive". Cllr Kieran Molloy said that if a developer wanted a road to link 88 houses to the main road, then he should have paid for it himself. Town Engineer Alan Kelly explained that the developer wanted to build a 6 meter wide road, but the council wanted a 7.5 meter wide road to include a cycle lane, so the developer paid for the 6 meter wide road, and the council funded the rest.