Happy As Larry?

Tom Fortune FRI21JAN22

t was back in September 2018 that we met up with Tom Fortune, to try and make sense of a new Kilcoole planning application.

Back then, it was for 267 units, circling around from The Mollys down to just across from Byrne’s Irish House.

Luckily, given that there didn’t seem to be all that much thought put into the impact such a large development would have on Kilcoole’s main street, the 184 residential, 84 duplex, five retail, four offices, one childcare facility and an innovation hub never came to pass.

Jump to two years later, and on December 2nd, an application was filed for 56 residential units on the same batch of land, owned back then by Larry Keegan, and most likely now too.

Back then the application was by Kimpton Vale; today, it’s Brookhampton Limited. Which could be one and the same, of course.

We’ve covered the onslaught of housing estates in this particularly lucrative neck of Wicklow over the past few months already – with Delgany and Enniskerry currently having to circle the wagons – and in each case, it’s not about stopping new houses being built.

Just as with Kilcoole, it’s about making sure that the area can take that much concrete. And, with a little forward planning, that the local community might actually benefit too. Alongside Wicklow County Council.

To find out a little more about the concerns surrounding their latest planning application, we caught up with Cllr Fortune at the proposed site this afternoon…

You can find out more about the Brookhampton Limited planning application here, reference number 22/15.