He also suggested that many of the cul de sacs could provide a solution to the ongoing problem of granting planning permission for people wishing to build in country areas.


Cllr O’Neill (FG) said he had raised the issue on a number of occasions about what would happen when the cul de sacs are created and the new road opens and how would access be curtailed for “unwelcome visitors”. he said he had failed to get a response, thus far, from the local authority executive on the issue.


He asked director of services, Mr Philip O’Neill to investigate whether it would be appropriate to allow planning for once-off houses on these cul de sacs, some of which he said were quite long up to a quarter of a mile.


Mr Philip O’Neill said he would investigate the matter. And Cllr O’Neill, referring to the non-indigenous Travelling community which have been blamed for leaving public sites in a very poor state after them he asked how the council proposed to keep caravans and horses out of them..


He said residents in many of the 16 new cul de sacs were afraid of what would happen once they were cut off at one end. “Unless we have a policy and take action this could turn out ot be a disaster on so many levels,” he prophecied. He is to raise the matter at a full meeting of the council to make it a matter of policy that planning be opened up, in so far as it can be, for people to build appropriate homes on these cul de sacs.


“We actually have an opportunity here to repopulate rural area and stop building these ghettos in the city and in our towns and villages,” he said.