PICTURES: Nearly 70 new social houses in Laois town to make 'a huge difference'

Almost 70 new A-rated social houses are nearing completion in a Laois town, set to make "a huge difference" to local people's lives.

Laois County Council will soon take ownership of two developments in Mountmellick.  Neither were built by it directly.

Francis Dunne Court in Townspark, at the rear of Pattison's Estate and Twomey Terrace off the Tullamore road will provide 49 new homes, in a turnkey development by Cubic Housing.

Apartments and houses in Townspark, Mountmellick nearing completion. Photos: Leinster Express

A further 20 homes are coming on stream this year, in the social housing Part 5 element of the privately built Grange Manor housing estate on Harbour Street at the other side of Mountmellick. It is built by Quantum Homes.

The tenants will be local people who cannot afford to buy a house, and many have already been informed they will get keys.

Some have been waiting up to eight years, according to Cllr Paddy Bracken of the Mountmellick Borris-in-Ossory Municipal District.

"It will make a huge difference," he told the Leinster Express / Laois Live. 

"Townspark will be in the next two months, it is nearly ready," he said.

"That will make a big impact on the housing list. A lot of people got word and are delighted," he said at the recent Laois County Council meeting.

Landscaping and roads completed in Francis Dunne Court. Photo: Leinster Express 

He said that Francis Dunne Court is called after a local man who fought and died in the 1798 rebellion, named on the nearby war memorial on Moore Street.

"I am actually a direct descendant," he said.

The estate will have five 2 bedroom bungalows (maisonettes), five 1 bedroom ground floor apartments, five 1 bedroom first floor apartments, 14 two bedroom houses and 20 three bedroom houses. Laois County Council says it will be complete by December, however Cllr Bracken says that following quick progress they will be ready within months.

Grange Manor will have 13 3 bedroom houses and seven 2 bedroom bungalows for social tenants, with private buyers already moving into the rest of the 52 house estate.

The new social houses in Grange Manor. Photo: Leinster Express

Between them they are the largest social housing addition to Mountmellick in many years, after Cullenbeg Park, Cullenbeg Wood and Willow Grove.

The next big project is to turn the derelict Maltings factory, bought at a nominal fee from NAMA by Laois County Council into 40 small apartments. The factory on the Portlaoise Road is in the process of getting state funding approval for its redesign.

It is a more ambitious plan than building houses on a greenfield site, agrees Cllr Bracken.

"Hopefully it will happen in the next couple of years. I'd be optimistic. There is a need there, and a need to clean up the whole site," he said.

The 2 bedroom bungalows under construction in Grange Manor. 

Read also: 'I see a very bright future' Laois regeneration officer focuses on Mountmellick

Mountmellick has a high rate of vacant houses and shops, and a high rate of unemployment, with one in eight people of the 5,000 residents out of work, nearly three times the national average. 

The once grand Georgian town centre is the subject of a Town Centre First Plan to regenerate it as an attractive place to live, work and visit. The final day for public consultation on a draft plan is Friday, July 11.