New owners take over massive Derry housing project on the Buncrana Road

The site of a proposed massive housing development in Derry has been taken over by new owners, it has emerged.

Plans for the H2 site were first lodged with the Planning Service in 2006, which sought permission for the construction of 5,000 new homes at lands on the Buncrana Road between Whitehouse Road and Coshquin.

The application also included provision for a new primary school, play parks and community facilities at the site, as well as drainage facilities and road infrastructure to cope with sheer size of the development.

It was hoped at the time that the new development would offer a possible solution to the ongoing housing shortage in the city, in addition to being a welcome boost for the building industry.

The Department of the Environment (DoE), which formerly had responsibility for the Planning Service, had been on the verge of issuing permission for the development to go ahead in late 2008.

However, the economic downturn, legal issues and changes of ownership meant the development was put on hold.

In December 2015, Clanmil Housing Association said it was interested in the ‘development potential’ of the H2 site.

In then emerged in 2016 that emerged that that National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), the so-called ‘bad bank’, was among the 20 separate parties who own the land, a number of whom were not known to the local planning authority, which is Derry City and Strabane District Council.

However, it was revealed at a recent meeting that new owners have now taken over the site, and that meetings have since been held with senior council officials about the future of the development.

It is understood that new owners took over the site at the end of 2016.

At the meeting, the Sinn Fein councillor Tony Hassan asked planning officers if there had been any progress made on the site.

The Head of Planning with council, Maura Fox, said that a meeting had taken place between applicants, agents and planning officials before Christmas, where those behind the project had requested the application ‘be kept live’.

She added that another meeting had taken place at the beginning of this month, where a further extension had been sought for the application.

Ms Fox continued that planning officials were ‘willing to move that forward’ once it had been received.

Cllr Hassan asked if the planning application would have to put out for consultation again, with Ms Fox replying that a new consultation would have to take place ‘given the length of time since the original application’.