Ray Murphy (outgoing treasurer), Kay Tyrrell, Mary Whelan. Back - Michael Browne, Maurice Dowling and Vincent Naughton who make up the new committee. Paul has retired after many years of service to the committee.
26 June 2003: EXCLUSIVE Arconagh residents have ‘requested’ Naas Town Council to initiate the statutory procedures necessary to take their estate in charge in line with section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. The Act entitles residents to require the local authority to take steps to take an estate in charge.
A copy of the letter and enclosed petitions has this week been sent to the Mayor of Kildare County Council Cllr Jim Reilly.
The petition has been signed by 118 residents from the 100 houses in the estate who are registered electors. The Res Assoc was obliged to have 105 to comply with the Act. It was pointed out that some people on the local register have moved from the estate while many newcomers have yet to register.
In the event of the Town Council ‘failing to perform its obligations immediately’, the residents will seek an order of mandamus from the High Court to compel the Council to comply with its legal obligations in this respect.
Arconagh residents have put their views forcefully to the Council in recent years in an attempt to have their complaints rectified. These are mostly to do with the green area and a sewage problem.
“That interation between residents and the Council has been singularly unsuccessful and the same issues about which residents were concerned almost a decade ago, remain unrersolved,” Vincednt Naughton, Secretary of the Arconagh Residents Assoc states.
They see no alternative to invoking the statutory power of Section 180 and have now done so formally.
Under the Section the Council must take the estate in charge when called upon to do so by a majority of the registered electors in the estate.
It envisages two possible scenarios: (1) Where the estate has been finished to the satisfaction of the local authority, then either the developer or a majority of residents can require the town council to take it in charge, or (2) Where the estate has not been finished to the satisfaction of the local authority, and if the town council has not issued enforcement proceedings against the developer within seven years of the date on which the planning permission for the development expired, than a majority of qualified electors who are owners or occupiers of the houses involved, as soon as may be, initiate the procedures under section 11 of the Roads Act, 1993.
The residents explain that on 28 February 1990 Conan Homes were granted planning permission for Arconagh estate. “The last house was built circa 1994. Despite years of lobbying our elected representatives and the Town Council’s officials, the estate has still not been taken in charge. A ‘bond’ was lodged with the Council by the builder before building commenced. It is our contention that the Town Council should take the estate in charge, cash in the bond and complete the remaining work that needs to be done’.
The issue was raised at their AGM on Monday 23 June.
