Plans for Cork homes refused over delay in public water treatment plant upgrade
& It Been Site File 110 Almost Threatens Has Build A For Years Now For Which Owns 20 Killumney, The Upgrading In Its Zoned Chronic Delays Housing O’brien Waste O’flynn To In Homes Water Plans In Public On Picture Which Nearby The Plant Treatment Criticised Ovens,
Plans for 110 new homes close to Cork City are at risk because of “deficiencies” in a public water treatment plant where upgrades have been required for almost 20 years.
The detail emerged after one of Cork’s largest house-building firms was refused planning for 51 homes in Ovens despite offering to build its own interim water treatment plant on the site.
O’Brien & O’Flynn criticised the chronic delays in upgrading the public waste water treatment plant in nearby Killumney, which now threatens its plans to build 110 homes on a site it owns in Ovens, which has been zoned for housing for almost 20 years.
“The Government doesn’t seem to get that there is a housing crisis because in this case, they have done nothing to sort it out,” a company spokesman said.
The firm applied to Cork County Council in July 2023 for planning for 51 houses — 30 four-bed, 12 three-bed, and nine two-bed houses — on the site at Grange, Ovens.
Killumney is nominated by the council for inclusion as part of Uisce Eireann's Small Towns and Villages Growth Programme as priority settlement.
But despite this, and the site being zoned for residential since 2005, planning documents show Uisce Éireann was only moving in February 2024 to the "preliminary business case" phase to determine a preferred option for upgrades to the treatment plant.
“An indicative date for project completion will then be provided once stage two for a project is complete. Further updates on the budget and timelines for delivery will be provided in due course,” Uisce Éireann said.
However, the utility said it was satisfied with the developer’s interim treatment plant solution, which included the setting-up of a management company to oversee it and the putting in place of a bond to maintain it.
Despite this, council planners refused planning this week because of the “existing deficiencies" in the public treatment plant.
It said in the absence of improved treatment capacity in the plant, the proposed development would be "prejudicial to public health".
It also said "chronic impacts to freshwater ecology and to European designated sites, downstream of the discharge point, from increasing the hydraulic loading on an already overloaded plant" cannot be ruled out.
But O’Brien and O’Flynn said the proposed homes would only generate additional wastewater flow to the River Bride of 0.013%, and Uisce Éireann had not objected to its interim solution.
“There were 30 items on the ‘request for further information’ letter and after all these items were answered," the company spokesman said.
"It was refused solely based on the wastewater issue despite submitting a Water Framework Directive Compliance Assessment Report as part of our further information response which demonstrated that discharges from the proposed development, via the on-site treatment plant, will be in full compliance with the Surface Water Regulations and Water Framework Directive."
The firm, which has another site nearby with capacity for 60 homes facing the same problem, is set to appeal the planning decision to An Bord Pleanála.