Council house lies empty for over five years with 800 on waiting list

A COUNCIL house has been unoccupied in County Cork for more than five years — despite a huge number of people being on the waiting list for local authority homes.

Council house lies empty for over five years with 800 on waiting list

To put it in context, it took Turkish workers just three years to build the Ballincollig bypass, but the house at 30 Fairfield Terrace, Clonakilty, has been awaiting completion of repairs since September, 2001.

There are 27 houses in the council’s West Cork Division unoccupied, while there are currently around 800 people on the council’s waiting list in that region.

In Dunmanway, Nos 5 and 6 McCarthy Terrace are unoccupied since July 2003, a total of 180 weeks each.

The situation is nearly as bad at 14 Riverview Drive, Ballineen which hasn’t had a tenant since January 2004. Likewise, 14 Droum in Castletownbere hasn’t been occupied since the same time — a period of 104 weeks.

Council officials have said that tender documents are still required for the work at the house in Fairfield Terrace, Clonakilty.

The position with Dunmanway’s two vacant houses, and the one in Enniskeane, is that they should be completed in April, while a survey is required on the one at Droum, Castletownbere.

Dunmanway features again in the list of shame. The house at No 1 Castle Street has been unoccupied for 92 weeks, and apparently a survey is in progress.

No 1A Castle Street is 56 weeks out of action and just a stone’s throw away, No 6 hasn’t seen any domestic life since last July.

Cllr Donal O’Rourke (FF) described the five-and-a-half-year delay in refurbishing the house in Clonakilty as “totally unacceptable” and “indefensible”.

He said that while he recognised the council had an impressive record in building houses, this was of concern to him.

“I accept there are sensitivities when lone tenants may become long- term hospital cases and of course the local authority house remains their home unless the tenant otherwise decides.

“However, there is the issue of the number of local authority houses being left vacant, after the council gets possession, for what appears to be an intolerable length of time. Unfortunately, the figures I have requested seem to bear this out,” Mr O’Rourke said.

He also added that he would be demanding that the council commit to a policy of having all of its housing stock habitable for tenants within twelve months of taking possession of any house in need of refurbishment, irrespective of its state of repair.

“If a developer can move into a green-field site and complete the construction of a hundred houses within twelve months, it is surely not beyond the bounds of possibility that Cork County Council would sort out repairs to its housing stock within a similar time frame,” Mr O’Rourke said.

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