Last night’s meeting regarding the planned development in Templemore left many questions unanswered.
That’s according to Seamus Hassey, owner of the Old Post Office building in the town, who says the meeting was still positive and had a great turnout of people from the area, as well as local politicians.
The meeting was set up to discuss the planned development proposed by the Templemore Voluntary Housing Association at the parklands and Main Street, which would see 24 housing units erected at the entrance of the Town Park.
Speaking to Tipp Today, Seamus said there were many valid concerns raised by the community.
“The main question for last night was, “How is Templemore, as a community, going to view a three-storey building up the park lane and parklands?”. Nobody is objecting against anything, but how it’s going to affect the town is the main thing. The community raised a load of valid points. There were questions like, “How was this site chosen when there are unfinished developments already in the town, houses that are already in place?” There’s loads of houses that need to be refurbished around the town. “Why and who chose the overbearing design?”
“One local resident, who lives no more than six houses down from the park lane, said there was no consultation and nobody had any idea there was a big project being put in the middle of a town center. But unfortunately, we couldn’t get answers.”
The meeting ended with the voluntary group saying they would meet to discuss it again at a later date, according to Seamus Hassey.
He says that this doesn’t make sense to him given the deadline for submissions.
“They said they would come and meet us in a meeting at a later date, but, to be fair, that’s no good because anybody’s submission or objections, or anybody who wants to talk about it, has until next Tuesday.
“There was a lot of good stuff brought up last night about impact. How is this going to impact the playground? The GAA pitch? The track? Questions that people want answered.
“Another good question that was asked was about parking. When you look at the drawing, there are seven or eight parking spaces allocated for the top piece of the site up against the playground wall as well. I counted roughly the amount of bedrooms in the developments, and there are 65, and some of them fit two people. So, let’s call it anywhere between 65 and 80 people and seven car parking spaces. How is that going to impact the town?”
