Council appeal for new housing in Trillick turned down

THE Housing Executive has turned down an appeal for new sheltered accommodation in Trillick.

In February, the issue of the lack of such accommodation in the village was discussed at a meeting of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council.

Councillors agreed at the meeting to write to the Housing Executive to ask for consideration to be given to providing new sheltered housing in Trillick.

However, the housing body had written back to the council to say this will not be happening.

In the letter, Grainia Long, Chief Executive of the Housing Executive, highlighted what she described as the ‘challenging capital environment for housing’.

“While I absolutely recognise the importance of sheltered accommodation and continued independent living provision, new developments are assessed and approved on the basis of need, budget availability and alignment with our strategic objectives,” she wrote.

“Unfortunately on this basis there are currently no plans to develop sheltered/independent living provision in Trillick.

“Nevertheless, we continue to review this position on an annual basis as we undertake needs assessments to inform our future programme.

“It is worth highlighting several sheltered/continued independent living services near Trillick which are currently funded through the Supporting People programme. These include Radius Housing; Monasterbane Fold in Fintona (5 units), Mullinacross Fold in Dromore (10 units), Brownhill Fold in Irvinestown (22 units) and Choice Housing; Lowtherstown Court in Irvinestown (25 units),” added Ms Long in her letter.