Appeal lodged against plan for 42 new Mayo homes due to concerns

Residents of Knightspark, Castlebar, are appealing a decision of Mayo County Council to grant planning permission to developers, Wycham Limited, for 42 houses at Garryduff with a new entrance onto Rathbawn Road.

They have expressed the view the development will be detrimental to the peace and quiet of their estate as well as to the safety of its road.

The residents are not opposing the construction of new houses but are concerned with the height of the new two-storey houses overlooking their homes and impinging on their privacy.

A spokesperson elaborated: "As most of the properties in the Knightspark area are single storey and would be overlooked by the two-storey houses proposed, we believe this is not a suitable development for this location.

"It is clear that we would lose privacy and the development would devalue our properties."

The 18-page appeal has also raised issues in regard to the site notice, the new roadways and pedestrian access routes and the impact of construction traffic.

It makes the point that the new development does not provide any details which show how it incorporates the proposed new link road between the Pontoon Road (R310) and the Newport Road (R311).

This development would appear to impede, if not remove, what will be a very important access road in the future development of Castlebar in terms of removing key traffic bottlenecks at Gallows Hill, Marian Row and the junction of the Pound Road and Newport Road, the appeal added.