Of 18 recent social infrastructure audits, 13 concluded no more was needed in areas such as Howth, Donabate, and Swords.
It doesn’t take long for Lucia McCullagh to list the community amenities in and around Donabate.
There is a community centre, supermarket, Newbridge House and Farm and the two beaches at Portrane and Donabate, she says. “And Portrane Beach is falling into the sea.”
But the 24-7 ATM is gone and the credit union too, she says. “They consolidated down to Balbriggan.”
And many of the closest amenities are a car or a train ride away, she says, in the likes of Malahide, Rush and Lusk.
Donabate has lots of new housing planned. But McCullagh’s concern is that few public amenities or community facilities are coming with these new estates.
There is a mechanism that is supposed to address this.
Developers applying for planning permission to build more than 50 homes at a time in the Fingal County Council area have to submit a social and community infrastructure audit with their application.
Audits should show gaps in facilities and whether new ones are needed to support new residents, says the council’s development plan. They mostly say neighbourhoods are well served.
Of 18 audits submitted to the council as part of applications either approved or pending since January 2023, 13 concluded that no extra infrastructure was needed in areas such as Howth, Donabate, and Swords.
That just doesn’t seem to reflect the reality on the ground, says Social Democrats Councillor Joan Hopkins.
“In the case of Howth, and it’s an area that I’ve been working very closely with and with the sports and community groups, they do not have adequate infrastructure,” she says.
It’s the council’s development plan that lays out the need for a community audit for developments with more than 50 homes.
The audit should look at how well stocked the area is for amenities, such as parks, schools, sporting and medical facilities, and community centres. It should cover what new residents will need and what is lacking, and what should be added, the plan says.
In Donabate, childcare is a major issue, says Social Democrats Councillor Paul Mulville. “It’s just shocking. A lot of parents are being pushed out of the area and can’t return to work.”
Some developers do flag that in their applications.
An audit by Declan Brassil and Company said that Aledo Donabate Ltd’s planned construction of 1,020 homes in Corballis East, Donabate, would deliver two childcare services to meet demand, as well as a medical centre and a school.
That application was approved by the council on 4 April 2024.
Right next door, an audit prepared by consultants Thornton O’Connor Town Planning in February 2024 on behalf of developer Marshall Yards Development Company for another site with 98 planned homes, also in Corballis East, took another approach. It didn’t suggest any new childcare spaces, raising questions about how audits should take into account what is planned and what is already built.
Their report identified that there were eleven Tusla-registered childcare facilities within a radius of 1.7km of the development site. None had space for new enrollments as of January 2024 and some had waiting lists, the audit found.
But Thornton O’Connor identified five planning applications for six childcare facilities within a 1km catchment, which if completed, could accommodate 618 children, it says.
These would address any current shortfall, they said, so there was sufficient infrastructure in the vicinity.
Audits are supposed to assess social infrastructure within 1km of the site of planned homes, says the Fingal County Council’s development plan.
Of 18 audits carried out since 1 January 2023, for planning applications either approved or awaiting a decision, not one kept solely to that radius.
Eleven audits also looked at a 2km radius.
An audit prepared by consultants at Brady Shipman for one of Fingal County Council’s own developments – 274 homes in Mooretown, Swords – said that the nearest banking and dental services were 1.9km away.
The closest indoor sporting facility also sat outside the 1km catchment, it said. But it didn’t propose any amenities in the scheme.
Brady Shipman did not respond when asked why it widened the catchment, while Fingal County Council did not respond before publication.
While most consultant reports broadened their radius to 2km, an audit by Brady Shipman for Glenveagh Living Limited looked at both a 1km and 5km catchment area as part of an application for the second phase of the Ballymastone development on the outskirts of Donabate.
The Ballymastone site is 1.2km east of the town’s station and 1.3km away from Main Street, according to Google Maps, and the consultant said due to its location, the 5km catchment area was also selected to capture facilities in the wider area.
Hopkins, the Social Democrats councillor, said she was surprised to learn that an audit submitted by developer GLL PRS Holdco Limited as part of its proposal for 135 flats in Deer Park in Howth, said that the area “is well serviced by existing services and facilities”.
Howth is well-serviced by people within the community, said Hopkins. “They have a fabulous network and they’re well organised with groups that can be joined that cost little or no money.”
But as for facilities, Howth is doing much worse, she says.
The report, prepared by McCutcheon Halley Chartered Planning Consultants, noted that two community centres, St. Columbanas and the Old Courthouse, and a library sit within 1.1km of the site.
McCutcheon Halley declined to comment on why it extended the radius. The case is still active, they said.
Hopkins, the councillor, says the library is very small. “The Courthouse is tiny, and Columbanas Hall is not wheelchair accessible, not buggy accessible. They’d need to level some ground to make it accessible.”
Howth needs a theatre space and a more suitable cultural or community space, she says.
When an audit overstates the adequacy of community facilities, the concern is that it may be reaching for an answer that somebody already wants, to justify building more homes without infrastructure, she says.
“There’s no profit to be made from community infrastructure,” she says.
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