Shattered lives

IT WAS supposed to be his dream house in the perfect estate to raise a family.

But for Paul Ryan, and dozens of his neighbours, the dream has become a nightmare.

The residents of the Meadows on Cork’s northside have now raised serious health and safety fears and called for immediate action to clear a ‘dump’ which has been allowed develop in the heart of their unfinished estate on a site which was earmarked for a crèche, a playground, and shops.

“It’s sickening to be honest,” Mr Ryan said.

“There’s a dump in the middle of our estate. We have children playing in this rubbish — I mean, you’d normally only see this kind of thing in the Third World.

“It’s an unsafe environment for everyone. I wouldn’t raise a cat here to be honest.”

Cork County Council granted permission in 2004 to Knocknacullen Ltd to develop the 267-unit €37m housing estate on a huge site straddling the city and county boundary in the shadow of the city’s landmark water tower in Hollyhill.

Three-bedroom houses were sold off the plans for €280,000.

Olympic athlete Mark Carroll, who grew up nearby, attended the dedication of the estate’s sweeping entrance road in his name.

But the development firm collapsed some years ago, before the estate was complete.

The two local authorities acquired several units, and released some to housing agencies.

However, for the last two years, residents’ lives have been blighted by illegal dumping and antisocial behaviour.

A liquidator was finally appointed to Knocknacullen last month.

According to government records, the situation doesn’t sound too bad — seven units near completion, 17 vacant.

But the grim reality on the ground is that an open landfill has been allowed to develop in the heart of the residential area overlooking St Vincent’s GAA Club’s pitches.

Children have free access to roam the unsecured site which is littered with shards of broken glass and rusty nails — where countless bags of stinking household rubbish, old TVs, cookers, fridges, old couches, beds, tyres, and mounds of construction rubble have been dumped.

The fire brigade has been called out several times in recent weeks to tackle bonfires lit among the rubbish.

Residents say scavengers visit regularly to scour for copper and other metals. Rats are a major problem.

Nearby, at the rear of the estate, almost 100 homes are without functioning street lights.

Elaine Healy said it is a major health and safety issue. She is so fearful for her 24-year-old daughter’s safety that rather than let her walk home from the bus stop on the main road, she collects her in her car.

“It’s pitch black up here at night — you can’t see your hand in front of you. It’s extremely dangerous,” Ms Healy said.

“You have kids running around and cars coming in — it’s an accident waiting to happen.

“And typical of this country, they’ll wait for the accident to happen before doing something about it.

“Nobody in this day and age should be living like this. It’s an absolute disgrace but it’s like everything happening in this country.

“Who is going to finish this estate? Nobody wants to take responsibility.”

At the western end of the estate, an entire apartment block has been boarded up — windows in the upstairs units are smashed.

Across the road, neat, well-kept homes sit alongside vacant houses where all the windows have been smashed.

Through the smashed living room window of one house, you can see naked electrical wires hanging from sockets, gas and water pipes sticking out of the floor, a child’s bike lies amid building rubble, and there are beer cans in the front room.

Another neighbour, Paul Gately, said he refuses to leave his young children play around the estate.

“I spent €2,000 on gates to keep them in our driveway, and neighbours’ children come over here to play,” he said.

Both men say they and their neighbours have tried to raise concerns with city and county authorities, but they feel abandoned. And they insist they will not pay the local property tax.

“For what?” Mr Gately said.

“We can’t walk in the road without falling down a hole, the road is subsiding, and we can’t see our way around at night because we have no street lights.”

Mr Ryan said nobody is taking responsibility for the situation and residents are left in no-man’s land.

However, there are signs of hope.

Sinn Féin Cllr Mick Nugent raised residents’ concerns in City Hall last week.

City manager Tim Lucey said the city council obtained two bonds from the developer to secure the completion of six contracted housing units, and these bonds have been called in by the city council from AIB.

It also emerged that Cork County Council has a bond from the developer through AIB under the planning permission for the taking in charge of the estate.

The county council is liaising with the liquidator on the completion of the outstanding public realm works before taking the estate in charge.

A spokesman for the liquidator said they have in talks with all the interested parties — including Knocknacullen representatives, AIB, Nama, and officials from the city and county councils.

A plan has been prepared to improve the situation and the liquidator is briefing residents on the progress.

Vacant buildings are being boarded up to prevent antisocial behaviour, the spokesman said.

Painters have moved on site in recent days to prepare them for occupation.

Contractors are cleaning rubbish from the rear of the abandoned apartment block.

And the liquidator is waiting for quotations to tackle the massive dump site.

“We plan to fence this area off first before moving in to clear the rubbish,” he said.

They are aware of the street lights issue and he described that as “a work in progress”.

“There has been more action in the last six weeks than in the previous two years,” he said.