Landmark Spa House in danger of becoming a white elephant

Council has no cash to make it safe

THE landmark Spa House in Mallow will become a white elephant unless action is a taken to restore the building to its former glory and open it to the public.

The future of the iconic building has one again come under the spotlight after its owners, Cork County Council, admitted they did not have the €400,000 needed to restore the building.

The landmark building, which had for a time served as the authority’s Energy Agency Office, was vacated in 2011 due to high levels of the naturally occurring carcinogenic gas Radon.

Cllr John Paul O’Shea (Ind) placed a motion before the council’s northern area committee requesting and update of the repair and reopening of the building.

In his reply senior council engineer Liam Singleton pointed out that a number of unsuccessful attempts had been made to rectify the radon problem at the Spa House.

He said that specialist advice had been sought in a bid to make the building safe for office use. However, this gave rise to questions regarding the structural integrity its roof and compliance with fire regulations.

Mr Singleton concluded by saying there was “currently no budget available” for remedial works to the building.

Cllr Kevin O’Keeffe (FF) said it was ironic that the building which once housed the council’s energy awareness and conservation section should be closed down.

“As a council we are always advocating the use of green and alternative energy sources. It must be an embarrassment to the authority that the very place where this project is based is no longer in use,” he said.

Cllr Dan Joe Fitzgerald (FF) said that while he understood the cost implications of repairing the building the money for it must be found from somewhere.

“It is a terrible shame that this building which is so important to the town of Mallow is still empty. We must investigate what other sources of funding are available for remedial works to it,” he said.

Cllr O’Shea said he was “very disappointed” with Mr Singelton’s reply, saying the owners of other buildings in the Spa were able to resolve their Radon issues with a simple €300 monitoring device.

“I know the structural integrity of the building is an issue, but we as a committee can’t accept there is no funding available to remedy this. The council originally purchased this building as a civic amenity and therefore there should be a plan in place for its future use,” he said.

“It is vital that this building return to the public domain,” he added.

Acting northern division manager Tom Stricth said the ‘simple’ solution proposed by Cllr O’Shea had not worked at the Spa House.

He pointed out that resolving the radon problem would necessitate replacing internal flooring. He said the roof would also need to be replaced and works undertaken to comply with fire regulations.

“We understand the concerns of councillors but we have no capital funding available for works at the Spa House,” he said.

“However, there may be other streams of funding we can explore. Certainly we as a council will keep this issue on the front burner,” he added.