Serious health threats plague ‘ghost estates’

A SIZEABLE number of housing estates “thrown up” by developers in recent years are plagued by serious health threats, including open sewers and water contamination, a Government survey said.

The preliminary findings of a national study of so-called ghost estates are being pored over by officials charged with clearing up the mess left by boom-time developers. While councils will receive power to seize control of the worst unfinished developments, the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) will take over the lion’s share.

Official inspectors are visiting the sites and drawing up a detailed map of every housing estate granted planning permission in the last five years. Planning Minister Ciaran Cuffe has ordered a full report for next month, but a pilot study in Laois that has just landed on his desk already suggests the scale of the fiasco. It found:

* A fifth of newly-completed homes are without adequate water, sewerage or road access.

* There are public health and safety fears at 25% of sites surveyed, including open sewers, open manholes, water contamination and unsecured sites.

* In all, 30% of housing developments recently completed lie vacant.

* Construction has not started in four out of ten houses granted planning permission.

Meanwhile, the Department of Environment expects the findings will be echoed in the countrywide survey, which will include a county-by-county breakdown, expected in September.

It was initially believed developer bonds or securities would finance an overhaul of half-finished estates.

The money is supposed to be lodged with local authorities to guarantee housing estates will be properly completed, but the survey has revealed a “maverick culture” in which speculators simply ignored pre-conditions and pressed ahead with their plans.

While a lot of bonds were not paid at all, in other cases, they were so miniscule that they are now deemed irrelevant given the scale of the clean-up operation.

“A lot of developers didn’t even pay bonds,” said one department official. “Even in some cases where there were conditions to pay bonds, a lot of them just went ahead and started developing without discharging any of the pre-commencement conditions.”

The preliminary findings also suggest the lion’s share of unfinished developments will eventually be taken over by NAMA.

The department believes planning permission will elapse on many of the estimated 620 ghost estates in the coming years.

The state’s toxic asset agency will then have to decide whether to seek extensions if they are to be completed. In such circumstances, the new planning act will allow local authorities to set new bonds.