The picturesque fishing village of Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, is in danger of being "raped" by new holiday homes, according to local objectors.
Wexford Co Council is due to make decisions by the end of this month on two schemes that would add more than 100 holiday homes to the village, which is renowned for its traditional thatched houses.
Mr Aidan Burke, who renovated one of these houses as a holiday home, pointed out that it had just three shops and no post office, no doctor's surgery, no chemist, no petrol station, not even an ATM.
McInerney Construction Ltd and Mr Brendan Sutton, a local landowner, are seeking permission to build 14 self-catering holiday cottages, 31 other houses and 10 apartments in four two-storey blocks.
The second application, submitted by Goff Developments Ltd, is for 56 units, as well as a two-storey leisure centre containing a swimming pool, games room, creche, convenience store and coffee shop. Both schemes, which would be on adjoining sites off the main street, have been designed by Wexford-based Raymund Kelly Architects in a style which, it is claimed, would complement the village.
Four houses fronting the main street would have thatched roofs, in deference to Kilmore Quay's most characteristic feature, with the rest of the McInerney scheme built up "in-depth" behind these houses.
The architects maintain that the principles governing its layout and design had been agreed in consultation with the county council's planner. The site had also been zoned for infill development in a local area plan.
"This proposal has been carefully designed in consultation with relevant departments of Wexford County Council to provide a compact infill residential development in the characteristic village of Kilmore Quay," the architects say.
In the Goff Developments scheme, the proposed leisure centre would be "unobtrusive" and its single-storey element also thatched. It would include a wide variety of house types, as well as 109 parking spaces in clusters. The architects say the two applications were lodged to coincide with an upgrading of Kilmore Quay's "inadequate" water supply system. They had also been told there was no need to provide a sewage treatment plant on either site.
They claim the development would reinforce south Wexford's tourism infrastructure and say the Sutton family, who own one of the sites, had made a significant contribution by providing land for a community centre.
However, according to one local publican, Mr James Kehoe, there is a "groundswell of opposition" to the two schemes, particularly after the demolition of Kilmore Quay's other pub, known as the Wooden House.
This is being replaced by "an absolute monstrosity of a mega-pub", Mr Kehoe said. The developer, Mr Cormac McCarthy, has already built a block of 40 holiday apartments on the adjoining site with the council's approval.
"Apartment blocks are contrary to the character of the village and have no place in Kilmore Quay," Mr Kehoe said.
In his submission on the latest schemes, Mr Kehoe said it was "wholly unacceptable" that the council should entertain schemes of such magnitude when its own engineers were "fully aware of the water supply problems" in the village. He described the sewerage system as "hopelessly inadequate".
There would also be adverse traffic impacts from the influx of cars, especially as the main street has no footpaths. "Traffic levels have to be seen to be believed. The village can barely cope," Mr Kehoe said.
He warned that the two holiday home schemes had "the potential to destroy what is left of Kilmore Quay as a heritage village" and said people quite reasonably expected the council's planners to stop their village being "raped".
