DUBLIN CITY COUNCILLORS have rejected controversial plans to build 853 new homes on the Oscar Traynor Road site in Coolock.

In a motion on the plans this evening, councillors voted by 48 votes to 14 against allowing the development on a 17-hectare site at the junction of the Port Tunnel and Oscar Traynor Road to go ahead.

Many councillors expressed concerns that half of the homes on the State-owned site would go to Glenveagh, a private developer announced as the preferred bidder of the site earlier this year.

Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, the Green Party and independent councillors instead called on the local authority to develop the site so all units would be earmarked for social housing.

Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan warned before the vote that the council’s plans were “fundamentally flawed” because they would not deliver cost-effective housing for those in need of homes.

However, Dublin City Council’s deputy chief executive Brendan Kenny warned that the council would not be able to manage the development of the site, and warned that rejecting the motion would lead to the loss of more than 250 social homes.

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Kenny requested that the matter be deferred so alternative plans could be considered, but this was rejected.