Call for Housing Adaptation Grant budget to be increased

Calls for the Housing Adaptation Grant scheme budget to be increased emerged at the June meeting of Louth County Council.

The meeting heard that each year a budget is allocated to the scheme which will adapt houses for the disabled or elderly.

Councillors were told that each year the scheme opened, was flooded with applications and then closed again after a few short weeks

However, this year saw an extension to the submission period with the scheme remaining open all year round.

Although welcoming the extension at the time, Cllr McGeough told the meeting he was ‘frustrated with the long periods of waiting time some constituents have been facing for these adaptations to take place.’

He said: ‘I have a lady who is in her late 80’s who made a submission for a small but essential adaptation to her bathroom in 2016. She was marked ‘Priority 1’ which is categorising her as ‘urgent’. 2016 has gone, 2017 applications are in and this lady has now been informed that her work should be carried out in 2018.’

He appealed for the local authority to apply to the Department for extra funding for the scheme ‘as there is not enough to meet the needs of Priority 1 cases and that is unacceptable.’s

‘ There is no point in opening the scheme all year round, processing and passing applications only to leave them sitting in a pile somewhere because there is no budget to carry out the works.’

“The applications for this particular Scheme are from some of the most vulnerable in our community.’

Cllr. McGeough added: ‘ The scheme is intended to make daily life better for those who need a bit of extra help with their physical needs. This could be anything from a downstairs bathroom to a more major refurbishment of their home. These adaptations need to be carried out in a timely manner and waiting two years is wholly unacceptable by anyone’s standards.’