Maintenance budget will be challenging

LOUTH County Council will be telling tenants what repairs they are responsible for themselves as they strive to avoid running out of money for housing repairs as happened last year.

Members of the Municipal District of Dundalk heard that the local authority is in the same position as it was this time last year as regards funding for housing maintenance.

A backlog of repairs developed towards the end of last year as the local authority ran out of funds, with councillors being told that there was no money for works for its housing stock.

Cllr John McGahon said that the last Director of Service for housing had done a superb job against a very difficult background.

He wanted to know what the situation was regarding the health of the housing maintenance budget and were they likely to have the same issues as they had last year as regards over spending?

Senior Executive Aoife Lawler said they were in the same position as they were this time last year.

She said staff in the local authority’s housing department would be sitting down and looking at ways of making the best use of their allocation.

They would also be emphasising to tenants what is their responsibility and what is the council’s responsibility when it came to repairs.

The report before the meeting indicated that there had been 482 requests for maintenance repairs to the end of November 2018, 217 of which were outstanding. Fifty vacant properties were in need of major repairs and a similar number needed minor works, with two awaiting allocation. Vacant properties accounted for 2.70 per cent of the council’s housing stock.