‘I look out and I see a caravan, sheds and cement mixers’
Now, three years later, instead of swings, when Denise looks out the doorway of her home in Ballyhooly, Co Cork, all she can see is building material, scaffolding, unsightly clutter and unfinished houses.
“Since we moved in nothing has happened, nothing has changed,” said the mother-of-three.
“The playground is one of the main reasons we chose to move here. Now, when I look out all I see is a run-down caravan, sheds and cement mixers. There is nothing for the kids to do here, we have to keep an eye on them all the time because the site is just fenced off and really dangerous.”
Despite promises that the space would be developed into a children’s play area, Denise and her family have had to contend with living in front of an abandoned building site for the past three years since they moved to the Gleann Úll estate.
The area was originally advertised as “a select development of 40 homes”. However, less than 20 have since been built.
Denise and her family have had to deal with living near an unfinished road with no public lighting and an abandoned neighbouring house strewn with rubbish and debris.
“The house next door was damaged during the bad weather at the start of the year, the windows are broken and there is mould growing all over it. It’s a huge health concern for us because my son has chest issues.”
Denise also has security concerns as during the summer gardaí were called to the estate after some people broke into one of the abandoned houses and threw a party.
Although the authorities have been contacted on numerous occasions by Denise and her neighbours, so far very little has been done.
“We brought a TD to the area recently and showed him the houses, but they say there is nothing they can do about it. Now we have to face into another winter with no street lighting in the estate. If we could just get the building site properly walled off and proper lighting, that would do us, but at this stage we have very little hope left,” she said.
Gleann Úll developer Ian O’Brien previously said they fully intend to finish the estate.
He said they have not completed it is as they are building on demand, and the playground will be provided as part of phase two and that was always the intention.
However, the unfinished estate has also caused problems for the greater Ballyhooly area.
Ballyhooly community council secretary Billy Mulqueen said concern has escalated recently as the county council gave permission for 18 more houses in Lios Árd, a neighbouring estate to Gleann Úll.
“I don’t understand how permission can be given to build more houses when there are enough empty estates as it stands. The area was slated in the Tidy Towns competition because of the unfinished wall around Gleann Úll, so they are causing huge problems for the community,” he said.
