Council tenants refuse to pay rent over ‘squalor’ in area

Local authority tenants in an historic part of Cork city have begun a rent strike in a bid to force the council to tackle what they say is the “squalor” in their area.

Several residents of Noonan’s Road in Greenmount are refusing to hand over weekly rent payments of between €70 and €80 to Cork City Council until they see action on the ground.

They say the grounds of at least three vacant flats are being used for illegal dumping, that the public precinct areas to the front of the flats are overgrown, and the rubble from a boundary wall which was knocked down two years ago is still lying in a heap where it was left.

Gardaí are also battling anti-social behaviour nearby, the heart of a tourist circuit which includes St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Elizabeth Fort and UCC.

Independent local Cllr Mick Finn said the residents have his full backing.

“I’m blue in the face from trying to get the city council to act on problems that are ‘blackening’ the name of the area,” he said.

“The residents are rightly saying that neither councillors nor officials would live in such circumstances and they are refusing to hand over their rent until something is done.

“In the midst of all this you have genuine people trying to keep their properties well, but they are sick to the teeth of some of their neighbours — and passers-by — leaving the place down and the council doing nothing about it.”

There have been several meetings between residents, ward councillors and council officials on this issue over the last six months. One resident, who declined to be named, said she and her neighbours feel they are being “fobbed off and forgotten”.

Mr Finn wrote to city manager Tim Lucey last week warning him that residents were running out of patience. “I warned council management residents might take such a course of action if basic improvements were not carried out but my warning fell on deaf ears. Little bits of work have been done, but there is no will, and no money apparently, to address the bigger issues.

“All five ward councillors are behind the genuine residents in their quest to get the place cleaned up to acceptable standards and that’s the very least these people deserve.”

The residents are seeking an emergency meeting with city officials to find the money needed to blitz the area. The rent strike comes days after it emerged the council is spending over €1m on road, cycle and pedestrian safety measures along the Skehard Road, including the removal of a roundabout.