Meath development faces safety inspection a year after it was labelled a firetrap

The first steps towards the serving of a fire safety notice have been taken by Meath County Council on a development which was labelled a firetrap over a year ago.

Residents of Riverwalk Court in the village of Ratoath have been informed that the council, as fire authority, intends to carry out a statutory inspection of the 36-unit development.

If the inspection is “of the view that the property or individual units within the property are potentially dangerous”, a fire safety notice will follow. That service is the first step towards having the development evacuated if remedial work is not undertaken.

The developer of the complex has claimed he is not responsible for any shortcomings that have been discovered.

The council’s move comes 14 months after it was informed by an independent fire consultant that Riverwalk Court was extremely dangerous as a result of a number of shortcomings in fire safety standards.

Last June, the council finally moved to probe the development two days after the Irish Examiner published an investigation into the ongoing fire safety issues. Among the litany of deficiencies in the complex were:

• “No fire stopping going into separating walls”;
• “Single layer of plasterboard in roof zone”;
• “Joist passing over party walls”;
• “No vertical cavity barriers” and “no cavity barriers at floors”;
• “Required fire resistance of compartments has not been achieved”.

Riverwalk Court was built using timber-frame construction, a method that was popular during the boom but which has grown in controversy as various deficiencies have been highlighted in estates around the country.

LONGBOAT QUAY: Gremlins went to work on apartment block http://t.co/dgonVuWq5B (DOD) pic.twitter.com/2vOTKYx3mK

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) October 5, 2015

Last night, Meath County Council wrote to residents and the developer informing them of the forthcoming statutory inspection.

Spokesman for the residents, Mark Fitzmaurice, said they were glad the statutory process has begun because the residents are of the view that the developer was not interested in a collaborative approach as suggested by the council.

“We enter into it with trepidation, too, as to where it might lead,” he said. “We are also disappointed that it has taken so long to get to this point considering what the council has known for over a year. We have been told by the fire officer that there is no immediate threat to life due to deficiencies, but we just find that difficult to understand.”

The complex was developed by Saltan Properties, a company owned by developer Michael Ryan. Mr Ryan was tried on charges of bribing Fine Gael councillor Fred Forsey but found not guilty. Forsey was found guilty of accepting a bribe in a separate trial and sentenced to six years in prison.

Unlike the company which developed Longboat Quay, Mr Ryan’s Saltan Properties is still in business, functioning as a going concern.