Council boss issues update on plans for huge site in Limerick

LIMERICK City and County Council chief executive Dr Pat Daly has revealed details of the long-awaited plan for the former Cleeve's factory.

The vast bank of land has only had temporary uses in the last few years, including most recently being home to the Halloween Scare Factory.

But in future, Dr Daly said, it will become "one of the top" riverside schemes in the city.

The ex-toffee factory, which is located at the North Circular Road, was taken into public ownership when the council bought the land from the Kerry Group.

This week, Dr Daly and other council executives appeared before the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

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Asked for an update on Cleeve's by Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan, the council chief said: "Cleeve's was one of the main city sites, it is a 10-acre site on the river. That will be coming as a mixed-use scheme. It will have residential, and apartments. So that will give us some the heavy density we need. But it will also have some offices. It will be a well-treated riverside scheme, one of the top in the city moving forward."

Concerns were expressed from other members of the committee at the pace at which the Land Development Agency (LDA) which is charged with delivering a number of housing schemes in Limerick, is working.

One of its projects is the redevelopment of the former Guinness factory in the Old Carey's Road, with the council's housing director Caroline Curley unable to put an exact timeframe on when these will be ready.

It's hoped that around 410 living spaces will fit in there, and the former CIE club which neighbours the site.

It's being delivered as part of the LDA's plans to give the area around Limerick's Colbert Station a facelift.

"We are pushing them on it, but it will probably be closer to 2026 before we will see the outcome. We had some preliminary plans. But it's the Guinness site plus the CIE lands. There are a lot of complicating factors before we can say what year or when exactly it will come to fruition. If it's not in the Housing for All period, it will be in the next one. We are working on it, we have signed mutual agreements with the LDA to work together, and we will be putting them under pressure to move that project as quick as we can," she said.

Dr Daly said dialogue will continue with the LDA, plus the local authority's own development arm, Limerick Twenty Thirty, and feels that through this, it might speed things along.

Giving evidence to the committee, he outlined the fact there are 41 projects on site under construction which will deliver 390 homes when complete by mid-way through next year.

"We have a strong delivery pipeline to deliver new homes by 2026. Currently, we have 1,220 homes approved in the system at various stages, for example, feasibility, planning, pre-tender. This is 45% of our overall five-year target approved at this point in year one of Housing for All. We have a further 1,616 homes at pre-approval stage, in the process of submitting to the Department of Housing for funding. Based on progress to date, we are well-positioned to reach our overall target," he told the committee.

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Ms Curley said the council is adopting the policy of mixed tenure at large sites, with Dr Daly adding: "To ensure this, the council are promoting an approach where 50% of the scheme is assigned to affordable homes – either cost-rental or affordable purchase, 30% to social rental homes and 20% promoted for a private rightsizing model."

He acknowledged the delivery of social housing in Limerick has been impacted by a range of factors including the Covid-19 lockdown, site closures, cost-inflation issues and labour shortages.

"Particular issues in Limerick have included contractor receivership, a judicial review process in relation to a large mixed-tenure residential scheme and the absence of a leasing and acquisition target under ‘Housing for All’," he added, "Regardless of all these challenges, the Council remains strongly committed to deliver a strong programme to achieve our housing targets."