Clonmel Borough Council is being urged to partner with private developers and housing bodies to utilise vacant or derelict commercial premises to provide housing.
Councillor Michael Murphy raised the issue at this month’s meeting of the Borough District saying there were a number of such properties in Clonmel which could be transformed into 1 or 2 bedroom apartments.
He said as well as providing much needed social housing such a move would have a number of other benefits as well.
“Getting more residential into our town centre – there’s a lot of new exemptions now in terms of transforming properties from commercial zoning back into residential zoning.
“It’s all very fine the Council building houses on greenfield sites on the outskirts of Clonmel but I think there’s a real opportunity in our town centre – properties that have been vacant for the last five or ten years and without naming the sites I’m giving the example of Upper Gladstone Street just above St Peter and Pauls Church.”
District Administrator Carol Creighton says the Council is actively pursuing Urban Regeneration and Development Funding for such works.
“We have a working group in place – we are identifying properties and we will be in touch with property owners to maybe look at purchasing or through CPO these derelict properties that have been on the cards for a long while.
“This is a work in progress as we haven’t the final Department funding approval yet but certainly we will be working with the team that’s involved with the Derelict Sites Registers etc over in the (County) Council.”
