Some progress on money to finish Kildare estate after developer went bust
Questions over spending public money to meet private obligations
Kildare County Council said it will start work on a process to take in charge Grace Park housing estate in Derrinturn this year.
But the process will not be the easiest because the company with built the 26 houses was dissolved in 2009.
The question of public money being used to pay for private obligations was also raised.
Cllr Brendan Wyse asked that the council take charge of Grace’s Park housing estate in Derrinturn, following the Section 180 request which was received in May 2016.
He said there and the subsequent commitment made at a Maynooth Municipal District meeting in May 2017 to complete the wearing course using funds from the Local Property Tax.
Cllr Wyse said there had been no progress since the decision was made in by the Maynooth committee in 2017
In a report to members at the Clane-Maynooth Municipal District meeting on March 6, officials said that Section 180 request has been received for this estate, however the LPT funding that the councillor refers to was for Chambers Park and Grace’s Park.
They then went on to say that all of the allocated funding with some additional monies was required for Chambers Park and as a result the wearing course in Grace’s Park is outstanding with no funding available. Windsor Style Developments developed the 26 houses under a 2004 planning permission (04/1479)
They said the company was dissolved in 2009 and the (insurance) bond expired on July 31 2008.
Members were told that to progress the Taking in Charge of the estate, the wearing course will have to be provided, the estate snagged and the council will need to have a CCTV survey and as-constructed drawings carried out.
It will also need to seek the approval of Irish Water.
Cllr Padraig McEvoy said they did not like using public money to pay for private obligations. “We don’t want people to abandon their obligations and fall back on Local Property Tax to pay for them.”
The Clane-Maynooth committee was told that this estate is not on the council’s schedule for 2020 “but the Building and Control Section will start to progress the process in 2020 by engaging with the council’s CCTV contractor to have the relevant surveys carried out.”