Cork council planning to take charge of nearly 100 unfinished housing estates
Some estates still need infrastructural improvements, including hooking up private wastewater treatment units to the public system. File picture: Dan Linehan
Cork County Council hopes to take over the running of up to 100 previously unfinished housing estates this year after it diverted money from its capital budget to tackle a backlog of applications which have been in the pipeline for several years.
Padraig Barrett, the council’s director of services and planning who oversees the process, has detailed the council's plans to take-in-charge a large number of estates, including many which were left unfinished by property developers.
He said the council currently has 219 applications for taking in charge. Of these, 103 are developer-led requests and 116 are at the request of residents.
Mr Barrett said of the total applications 36 cannot be considered for taking in charge as they’re not viewed as housing estates, or are gated developments, or have their own management companies in place. In addition, some have failed to follow up with required information.
“There are therefore 183 actual housing estates with valid requests. Of these 99 estates are at various stages of the taking-in-charge process and currently no procedural or infrastructural impediments have arisen to prevent taking in charge,” the senior official said.
It’s expected these will be taken over by the council this year, with Mr Barrett adding that a further 57 are coming into the pipeline but may take a bit longer to process.
They still need infrastructural improvements, including hooking up private wastewater treatment units to the public system. Talks are continuing between the council and Uisce Éireann to resolve these issues.
Mr Barrett gave a comprehensive six-page summary of the taking-in-charge process to county councillors following a request from Fine Gael councillor Liam Madden.
He said the biggest problem the council has to deal with are “the legacy estates” many of which were quickly built by developers during the Celtic Tiger boom years and then not finished off when the recession hit in 2008.
Mr Madden said he knows of situations in two unfinished estates, one where parents won’t let their kids out to play because of dangerous holes.
He also claimed that another unfinished estate in the region is showing signs of serious subsidence. He said this hasn’t been addressed and the developer who has left estates in a very poor condition is still building homes elsewhere.
Councillor Seamus McGrath said it can be extremely difficult for homeowners when developers aren’t living up to their responsibilities.
Fine Gael councillor Kevin Murphy claimed one estate in Kinsale had been left in limbo for 16 years and that the developer had no bond at all. Bonds should be lodged with developers’ insurance companies to pay for any work they're unable to complete.
