Galway Council leader is aiming to reverse the vote on housing development in a project involving a Fine Gael Council

The company, owned by pharmacists Damien and Olivia Lavelle, used former Fine Gael TD Brian Walsh and his brother John, a former councilman, to lobby councilors earlier this year to push for density increases the grounds in Roscam in the east part of the town, from four to 12 houses.

Brian and John Walsh are brothers to Olivia Lavelle.

Fine Gael Councilor Eddie Hoare has a commercial interest in the development through his company Dangan Properties. She advertises the development of the website on her own website.

Mr. Hoare is a director and a quarter owner of Dangan Properties, which recently settled two loans it had taken out with a Lavelles company.

The City Council stayed away from voting on the Proofridge development in July, declaring a potential conflict of interest.

His Fine Gael fellow councillors, Clodagh Higgins and Frank Fahy, were among the 12 councilors who voted 12 to 4 to triple the allowable density of the Proofridge site, while also demanding that the company be linked to its development and the public sewage treatment plant.

In his response to councilors’ change to the city development plan at the Proofridge site, the chief executive said it was “an unserviced area with no access to municipal sewage services”.

“Higher density can only be achieved where connections can be made to the public sewer system,” McGrath said. “It is therefore considered premature to incorporate the proposed significant change. Notwithstanding, the proposal is considered unsustainable due to its location remote from other services, including pedestrian and public transport networks.”

Mr McGrath said a density of 12 units per hectare “represents uncoordinated, piecemeal development”. Linked to other “uncoordinated housing zones,” he said they would “undermine the overall settlement strategy in the plan” and be inconsistent with core strategy and national and regional policies

In its submissions to councilors, Proofridge said it hoped sewer connections to the north of its site, including the 102-unit “Alber” development owned by developers Luke and Brian Comer, would allow its site to be connected to the water system.

A resident of the Rosshill area has complained to the Sunday independent that Mr. Hoare should not have voted to maintain planning permission for the Alber Estates because Proofridge said it would benefit from this development.

This weekend, however, Mr Hoare denied there had been any conflict, as his vote on the Alber project supported the chief executive’s recommendation to reject proposals to increase the permitted density on Comer brothers’ land and retain its current status. The Alber project is currently under judicial review in the High Court by residents who are complaining that the An Bord Pleanála permit was granted in breach of Irish and EU law.

Mr Hoare said he did not think Proofridge would require Alber to be developed to support connection to the public water network.

“I am aware that construction work has already begun on the Proofridge Limited site and the owners intend to connect the sewers independently of other developments in the area,” he said. “As far as I know, Proofridge Limited’s filing was supported by members who are subject to sewer hookup.”

He said it would be wrong to say Proofridge would rely on Alber development to advance his water connection.

“In fact, Alber Developments will most likely be the beneficiary of Proofridge Limited advancing the canal work,” he said. “I believe I have acted entirely correctly in declaring a potential conflict of interest and in abstaining from both the debate and the vote on the Proofridge Limited filing.”

In its submission to council members, Alber Developments called for the removal of the environmental impact label on its property and the rezoning of its lands for the construction of more than 700 units.

The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has asked the City Council to review its approach to zoning for low-density residential areas and omit previously zoned areas on the Roscam Peninsula.

Martin Fahy of Save Roscam Peninsula, who brought the case against the Alber development, questioned the zoning of “undeveloped greenfield land despite an excess of existing zoned developed land” in Galway. “Only one in four of the houses approved in the current development plan has been completed,” he added.