Safety work carried out at the Great Southern
SAFETY works have been undertaken at the site of the former Great Southern Hotel in Rosslare.
At last Monday’s meeting of Wexford Borough District engineer Sean Kavanagh said that the council had served notice on the owners of the hotel site under the Dangerous Structures Act and the owners had since made the site secure.
He said that the graffiti which had been there had been painted over and works had been undertaken to fence and secure the site. He said the owners are currently working with the council and if there are any further breaches or access to the site they will re-secure it.
He said that the owners had also undertaken to paint certain areas to enhance the appearance of the building. However he said that the time frame for this could be delayed by a number of days because of inclement weather.
‘It is secure at the moment’, he said ‘and we have agreed on strategic locations for fencing which will be in place by the weekend. The owners have said there is a legal difficulty with the folio which is putting problems in the way of development. They have had a meeting with the senior planner and want to drive on with the planning. They are actively engaging with us and will continue to do so. We feel we have a good working relationship with them.’
Cllr Deirdre Wadding pointed out that the owners ‘didn’t take any responsibility until now’.
She pointed out that there had been children on the roof of the hotel at various stages and said ‘we have had tragic deaths in town in situations like this’.
Cllr Wadding said she wanted to be sure that the council would ‘ take a strong line on this. It’s great that the hotel is secured but this can’t be allowed to go on indefinitely.’
Cllr Ger Carthy who had raised the matter at a previous meeting said ‘ the officials hadn’t been found wanting’ when it came to dealing with the situation.
Cllr. George Lawlor said that the council had also had the option of issuing the owners with proceedings under the Derelict Site act adding that this would have generated some income.
He also said he was puzzled as to how the owners had been able to buy the site if there was a problem with the folio. He asked director of services Tony Larkin if the council had considered issuing a notice under the Derelict Sites act pointing out that this had been successful in the past when it came to dealing with derelict sites.
‘My fear is now that we have it fenced off it will simply become a fenced off eyesore. The area needs renewal and redevelopment rapidly’, he said.
Mr Larkin said there had been a discussion as to the best course of action to take when it came to issuing the notice and said it was felt that the dangerous sites notice carried higher sanctions.
However he said that he will continue to monitor the situation and would place it on the derelict sites register if necessary.
In respect of the folio difficulty he said that it might be possibly that although the sale had gone through it hadn’t been registered. However me moved to reassure the councillors that the council would continue to actively pursue the owners if problems arose.
Cllr George Lawlor said: ‘I think these people (the owners) have sat on their hands long enough’.