Council urged to buy derelict and empty urban buildings for use as social and affordable housing
CORK County Council has been asked to investigate the feasibility of purchasing derelict and unused buildings in towns and villages across North Cork to convert in a mixture social and affordable housing.
The idea has been mooted by Mallow-based Cllr Pat Hayes (Fianna Fáil), who raised the issue at this week’s meeting of the authority’s northern area committee.
Speaking to The Corkman Cllr Hayes said the initiative could potentially save the authority large amounts of money while at the same time complementing the authority’s policy of rejuvenating urban centres across the region.
“In Mallow alone there are up to 70 properties that are either derelict or lying unused,” Cllr Hayes said.
“While there would be a significant initial outlay to purchase these, it could be funded by securing low-interest, longterm EU or Government loans.”
He pointed out that the outlay would be considerably lower than purchasing and building new housing units on greenfield sites.
“For a start you will not need
to go through the planning process, which can be lengthy and expensive. Also the authority would not have to cover the cost of putting in place utilities such as sewage, water supply, roads and lighting as they would already be in place,” said Cllr Hayes.
“Such an initiative would help breathe new life back into urban centres, many of which have been in steady decline over recent years due to issues such as declining populations and, certainly in Mallow’s case, traffic congestion that puts many people off coming to the town,” he added.
Cllr Hayes said he believed the initiative would also play into the ‘green agenda’ by removing cars from the roads as people would be living within easy walking or cycling distance of schools, shops and leisure amenities.
“In Mallow, for example, we have plenty of shops, the town park and Mallow Castle, all within easy reach of the town centre. Of course any move to buy these properties for housing would need to go hand-inhand with an increased focus on providing cycle lanes and expanded footpath networks. That could be achieved quite easily at a relatively small cost,” he said.
“The upshot of this would be that there would be less harmful emissions from vehicles, with obvious benefits for the environment.”
Cllr Hayes said council officials were open to the idea and said they would investigate its feasibility. In the meantime, he intends to raise the issue in a formal motion before the next full meeting of the authority to seek backing for the proposal from his fellow councillors.