COUNCIL URGED TO TACKLE DERELICT SITES
CLLR SAYS AUTHORITY IS NOT DOING ENOUGH TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM
CORK County Council has been urged to “get a backbone” and start issuing legally binding orders to the owners of derelict sites forcing them undertake clean up works.
The issue was raised by Cllr John Paul who told a meeting of the Kanturk/Mallow district committee held in Buttevant that there had been “very little movement” on the issue over recent months.
“Even though there has been some small movement in Kanturk we are in Buttevant this morning and there are two derelict sites in the town where an agreement was made with owners of those properties to do something with them. They started the work and then walked away,” said Cllr O’Shea.
“There was a fire at one site in Buttevant and the roof caved in on the house putting pressure on the walls. Locals can hear the walls creaking and are genuinely concerned they will collapse, fall onto the public road and kills someone. We have done a report on this and issued a notice. Some works have been done but have not been completed,” he added.
Cllr O’Shea did point out that council engineers had undertaken reports on numerous derelict sites across the region and clean up notices had been issued to owners.
“However, very little seems to happen after that. This is happening right across the district. The people who own these sites know we can only do so much at a local level so it is time that these sites were brought to the attention of senior officials. It’s time we got a backbone and started issuing orders for the work that needs to be done,” he said.
Cllr O’Shea went on to say it was also his belief that not enough punitive levies had been put on derelict sites over recent years.
“It is time we did that. We should be carrying out remedial works ourselves and imposing a levy on the owners to cover the cost of these works,” he said.
“I would like to see a report brought before the next meeting of this committee on these derelict sites and what the council is planning to do about them, particularly in relation to those in Buttevant.”