Taxpayer faces clean-up bill for house piled high with rubbish

The taxpayer is facing a hefty clean-up bill after tonnes of rotting rubbish and vast piles of nappies containing human waste were found inside an abandoned suburban house.

Officials from Cork County Council have assessed the terraced property in a housing estate in Passage West, Co Cork, and called in waste specialist yesterday to deal with the hazardous material.

The residents of St Joseph’s Terrace in Rockenham welcomed the action, but said they were amazed a family could have lived in those conditions.

They also expressed concern about how the situation was allowed to develop.

“We just don’t know what went wrong in there,” said St Joseph’s residents’ spokeswoman Regina O’Sullivan.

The house was bought under a shared ownership scheme, which means the local authority has a rental equity financial interest in the mortgage.

A family — two adults and their children — lived there for several years before leaving some time in May.

Ms O’Sullivan said that she noticed something seriously wrong last week when she spotted the front door slightly open.

“I knocked first, then pushed it open and oh my God — you couldn’t imagine — the smell was unreal,” she said.

She described the horrendous scene inside:

* The downstairs rooms, hall, and stairs were littered with up to 4ft of rubbish, old and soiled clothes, babies bottles and broken toys;

* Part of the kitchen floor had been eaten away by rats;

* The fridge was full of rotten food and was infested with maggots;

* Hundreds of soiled nappies were found in a vast pile in an upstairs bedroom and in the bath.

Some of the rubbish piles almost reached the ceilings, she said.

Another neighbour, Sandra Kind, said residents of the tidy estate were concerned for their health and contacted the council and the HSE, but were dismissed.

She said it was only when TV3, which featured the house last night, and the Irish Examiner began making enquiries, that they saw action.

However, Cllr Seamus McGrath (FF) said a delegation of residents was allowed to voice their concerns at a meeting of the town’s joint policing committee on Monday.

“Once the issues became clear to the council, there was swift and decisive action on Tuesday because everyone recognised there was a serious health and environment issue here,” he said.

Specialist cleaners are expected to begin work clearing the house today, he said.

It is also understood that authorities, including the HSE, have traced the family and are assessing their circumstances.