Agreement 'close' on start of huge Lissywollen housing project in Athlone

Westmeath County Council said it's hopeful an agreement with a developer to start work on the massive 576-unit Lissywollen housing project in Athlone will be finalised in the next couple of weeks.

The development is the single largest housing scheme ever to be granted planning permission in Athlone, but, three years on from that planning decision, site works have yet to get underway.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent on Monday last, Jackie Finney, director of services in the council's housing section, acknowledged that completing the agreement between the council and the developer had been a slow process, but she indicated it was getting there.

"We are meeting weekly, and we're getting closer," she said. "I said previously that, by mid-July, we'd be hopeful the development agreement would be signed, and then shortly after that (the developer) would get to work.

"That is the current position, and that's what we're working towards," she stated.

"It is slow enough with all of the documentation that has to be prepared, and there are solicitors on all sides working on that. It's getting down to the nitty-gritty of the detail, which takes a bit of time."

The project is due to be developed by Garrycastle Homes Ltd, trading as Alanna Homes. Originally, the Alanna-Roadbridge JV consortium was to develop the housing, but this was revised in recent years following the insolvency of the Roadbridge construction group.

The construction of a new link road through the Lissywollen/Brawney area, which would connect the Ballymahon Road with Garrycastle, remains the first step in the Lissywollen housing development once an agreement between the council and the developer is in place.

Meanwhile, in this week's edition of the Westmeath Independent, the council advertised its issuing of a compulsory purchase order (CPO) for a 1.04 acre piece of land at Kilnafaddoge townland in Athlone for use as part of the Lissywollen project.

Ms Finney said the council already had a "possessory title" on the piece of land in question, but that it was going through the CPO process in order to "clean the title for the future development" by making it a freehold title.

The piece of land is located next to the Old Rail Trail greenway, and both Irish Rail and Andrews Construction Ltd of Mullingar are listed as "owners or reputed owners" of it at present.

Ms Finney said no other CPOs were planned in relation to the Lissywollen project, and the fact that this CPO process was getting underway would not be prevent work from starting on the development as a whole.

A total of 576 residential dwellings are due to be created alongside the existing Brawney housing estate, between the Scoil na gCeithre Maistri Gaelscoil and Garrycastle, and these would be a mixture of 285 houses and 291 apartments or duplexes.

The development has been designed to cater for more 1,500 residents in total.