NEWBRIDGE, 29 November 2002: The Goodwill Housing Cooperative in Newbridge should have land transferred to it 'within months' a Kildare County Council spokesman said this morning. His comments came following suggestions by the cooperative that it might have to 'wind up'.
Council information officer Charlie Talbot said that an agreement to provide land to the 9-year-old coop had been in place for a number of years, but there had been difficulties in the acquisition of lands in Newbridge for council needs.
Now the council has a 36-acre land bank, and is working through a planning process which will, as well as beginning its own housing programme in the town, allow a site to be handed over to the cooperative.
He said an earlier planning process by the council had to be withdrawn earlier this year in the face of heavy opposition. The latest proposal is due to come before the council on December 16, and once a 'parent' planning permission is in place, the cooperative will be in a position to apply for funding approval from the Department of the Environment.
Marie Mullane of the Goodwill cooperative had said that the directors of the project could no longer keep going back to their members and effectively tell them 'white lies' about the progress of the project.
"All our people are living in private rented accommodation and want to be socially responsible by building their own homes and getting off the council's housing list," she said.
