Council has identified 19 vacant town sites
THE owners of 19 sites in Sligo town have been contacted by the Council to say they’re being added to a new Vacant Sites Register.
Director of Services Dorothy Clarke told the news to Councillor Declan Bree who had tabled a motion calling for an up to date report on the Vacant Sites Register.
He told members a vacant site can be entered on the register when the Council is of the opinion that it has been vacant for a minimum of 12 months preceding its entry on the register.
The levy for 2018 is 3% of the site’s market value and will be increased to 7 % for 2019.
Ms Clarke told the meeting that they had set up the Vacant Sites Register on 1st January 2017.
“In the past month, the owners of 19 sites have been notified of the proposed entry on the Vacant Sites Register. Further notices will be issued throughout the year,” she said.
Site owners have four weeks to make written submissions regarding their lands entry onto the register after which planners will decide whether to include it on the register or not. Any decision can be appealed to An Bord Pleanála.
Cllr Bree said he was disappointed that no sites had actually be entered on the Register as of yet.
Ms Clarke said quite a lot of surveys and preliminary investigations had to be done - she said 50 sites were looked at and 19 identified as possibly vacant.
She said with the appeals process it would be “the end of the year before we can determine if they’re vacant or not.”
“We seem to be behind many of the more progressive councils but nonetheless I hope developers make a move and we may not have to have a register,” he said.
Planner Stephen Ward told members that both greenfield and brownfield sites which are causing anti-social behaviour would be included.
“We’re concentrating on the Sligo area first and then we’ ll move on to Ballisodare and other settlements,” he said.
Councillor Rosaleen O’Grady welcomed his mention of brownfield sites: “It’s a huge issue for the people living beside them. The fear of squatters and damp to adjoining houses. It’s an ongoing issue.”