Fine Gael Councillor John Cummins says the Kilbarry area is set to become a new suburb of Waterford City .

The 100-million-euro development has a masterplan for 800 houses and apartments with a further 1,300 planned on the wider land bank.

That will be facilitated by the construction of a 3.3-million-euro road and services project for which a Waterford contractor is set to be awarded over the next few days.

The road from the 6 cross roads roundabout towards the Lacken Road is being funded under the governments Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF).

The first 69 houses and apartments are being constructed for Respond.

A 90-bed nursing home with single en-suite rooms received permission last year and is due to commence construction in July.

John Cummins says the new road will open up the land bank to cater for 100 million euro worth of development consisting of 800 houses & apartments, a nursing home, medical centre, café and crèche.

“A masterplan for 800 houses and apartments has been completed with a further 1300 planned on the wider land bank which will be facilitated by the construction of the LIHAF road and services.

“The first 4 phases (373 houses) which have permission will commence in July and are predominantly made up of 3 bed semis, however all of the houses are designed from a lifetime perspective in that each house has the capability of enlarging to meet a growing family’s needs and will have planning for a 2nd ground floor living space and an additional bedroom in the attic so that homeowners are not forced to move to upsize, they can achieve that within their home relatively inexpensively”.

John Cummins said it’s his understanding planning permission will be sought in the coming weeks for a 20-acre solar farm fronting the Tramore Road.

“The purpose of [the solar farm] is to create a community cooperative that each home owner in the overall scheme will receive a shareholding in.

“The net effect is that not only will the home owner have the benefit of zero/low energy bills but as a shareholder they will receive an income from the solar farm once feed in tariffs from the grid are agreed at government level and this is something I have begun work on with both the Department of Housing and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment”.

He says a new secondary school is also being planned for the area.

“There is a framework that’s being developed to look at the whole area and the services that will be needed into the future.

“Discussions have commenced with the Department of Education in relation to the provision of a secondary school in the Kilbarry area.”