Contractors are being sought to build 21 new residential homes in Buncrana following the issue of tender documents, it has emerged.
The Donegal County Council seek to build the first council house estate in the Rockytown area for the first time in over a decade when Earlsfort in Cockhill was opened.
Contractors have until August 30th to apply to build the new homes on the Inishowen site, with the new tender obliged to complete the project within 65 weeks from the contracts starting date.
It is understood that out of the 21 dwellings, 11 of those will be three-bedroom/five-person homes, two four-bedroom/seven-person homes and eight two bedrooms/three-person apartments.
Concerns have previously been raised over the sites potential flooding risk, but a council planner through a council planning report said fears over potential flooding to the development was ‘low’.
However, that report was published in 2015, two years shy of the flash flooding that hit the peninsula in 2017.
There were also concerns raised over the presence of Japanese Knotweed on the site, but engineers have since ordered the management and treatment of the damaging plant before any development gets underway.
Inishowen Councillor Jack Murray, who was part of the council that passed the planning permission unanimously two years ago, said the development would help ease housing waiting list in the Inishowen town.
Welcoming the news, he told Donegal Daily: “We have been waiting for a long time for this development to get this stage.
“It was hoped that it would reach this stage a lot quicker.
“But at last it has got this far and Buncrana is under serious pressure with the housing waiting list which is at a serious level now,” he added.
“It is almost possible to find a rental property in Buncrana, so it will be great to see people get the keys to these houses that need them.
“But it will also lift the pressure off what is already a very congestant rental market at the minute.”
