This article is from page 31 of the 2007-07-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 31 JPG
THIRTEEN per cent of all houses in Shannon were unoccupied last year. While this figure is lower than the county average of 21 per cent, it is a significantly high figure for Shannon, which is not a haven for holiday home construction.
Shannon councillors last week re- ceived details of the county council’s housing strategy, between this year and 2011. The document points to- wards a projected house construction in the county of almost 11,000 new homes, between now and 2011.
Clare County Council senior execu- tive engineer (planning), John Brad- ley said that 3,457 houses in Shannon
were occupied, in the Census fig- ures for 2006. 522 were unoccupied, which represents 13 per cent of all TOU ehe
‘Where are these vacant houses and what is the reason? Are these second homes?” asked Mr Bradley.
He said that he was surprised by the high number of vacant houses and the number of replacement homes in Shannon.
‘This is not a holiday home venue. This area shouldn’t be holiday homes. While 522 unoccupied homes is low- er than the norm of 21] per cent for the whole of the county, it 1s of concern. Virtually any estate we have been through, there is a huge number of ‘for sale’ boards,” said Mr Bradley.
The mayor of Clare, Councillor Pa- tricia McCarthy (Independent) said the number of vacant houses in Clare was “frightening”.
“In the housing strategy, the area that isn’t covered is step down hous- ing, who are the elderly. They don’t want mortgages and they need some- thing to step down to. The social housing doesn’t cater for them. The affordable doesn’t cater for them,” she said.
Councillor Gerry Flynn (Independ- ent) noted that 21 per cent of houses in the county were vacant last year and asked, “Is that a failure in plan- bate
“Are we now seeing a failure show- ing up in the system that was always
anticipated?”’ he asked.
Cllr Tony Mulcahy (FG) said that the needs of single men with children Should be addressed, in terms of so- cial and affordable housing.
“They need to get some form of subsidy. We are way short,’ he said.
Newmarket-on-Fergus — Council- lor Pat McMahon said that housing shortages in his area, and Sixmileb- ridge, should be tackled.
“Newmarket and Sixmilebridge ex- perience great growth and will expe- rience more growth in the next five to 10 years,” he said.
He said the housing issue was like “adding another fence in the Grand National. It gets harder to win. It is a very Serious issue”.