Cork County Council wants stiffer penalty for owners of derelict sites

By Sean O’Riordan

Cork County Council is to ask the Government to impose a stiffer penalty on the owners of derelict sites because the current levy is too low and the legislation supporting it is “cumbersome” to enact.

Currently, the local authority can impose a 3% yearly charge based on the overall market value of the property. In many cases the market value is quite small because of the dereliction of the property.

Nonetheless, many property owners are not paying the charge, choosing instead to let it mount up and eventually have a new owner pay the bill.

While the council tries to engage with the owners of such sites, many will not and there are also numerous cases where the local authority cannot identify who owns the site.

The call to increase the annual levy to 10% was made by Fianna Fáil councillor Seamus McGrath, who sought a report from council officials on what progress had been made in recent years in enforcing derelict site orders.

He received a breakdown for each of the eight municipal districts in the county.

In total there are currently 172 properties on the Derelict Sites Register, which is just five fewer than in 2016.

Mr McGrath said he was especially concerned that there were 116 of these properties on the register in the West Cork municipal district. The second highest number of such properties, at 15, were in the Ballincollig/Carrigaline municipal district. There were just three each in the Blarney/Macroom, East Cork and Cobh/Glanmire districts.

Mr McGrath sought a report so he could get a snapshot of what was happening with derelict properties in the county.

He said he was concerned that one of the properties in his own municipal district of Ballincollig/Carrigaline had been on the register since 2008. However, this was not the longest. The report said four properties were put on the register in the Charleville/Fermoy municipal district as far back as 2003.

There are still a significant number of properties on it. We need to address the length of time they are on it,” he said.

Mr McGrath said a lot of owners were “sitting on the properties” in the hope of selling them off in an improving market.

“ A 3% levy isn’t sufficient deterrent,” he said. “We need to write to the Department [of Housing, Planning, and Local Government] seeking for it to be increased to 10%. We need to look more at CPO-ing [compulsory purchase orders] for these sites. There are properties in prominent locations in towns and villages. Many of these properties are a blight on our towns and villages.”

Council chief executive Tim Lucey said the process of having such properties refurbished was “cumbersome,” especially if owners weren’t willing to engage with the local authority. He added that it was also “time-consuming” for council staff.