Hundreds of thousands of euro paid annualy to private company for hire of steel shuttering
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| Scarce money paid for this! |
Mayfield Workers’ Party Councillor Ted
Tynan has described the situation where over 500 local authority flats and
houses remain empty in Cork City at a time of housing crisis as a “no brainer”.
Speaking at tonight’s (Monday) meeting
of Cork City Council, Cllr. Tynan said that with 8,000 people on Cork City Council’s housing
list it simply made no sense to have hundreds of homes boarded up at
considerable cost to the local authority. He also raised the ongoing problem
with the faulty district heating system in Mayfield
“People may not realise that Cork City
Council is paying out hundreds of thousands of euro every year to rent out the
steel shuttering used to secure the empty homes. In 2012 the council paid over €175,000 to a
private company to hire these steel shutters.
This figure continues to rise.
At the same time there is a hidden cost to the council in tackling
vandalism, illegal dumping and other forms of anti-social behaviour which are
encouraged when an area looks neglected”, said Cllr. Tynan.
The Workers’ Party councillor said that the
City Council was paying for neglect and the money used in shuttering, security
and tackling anti-social behaviour should instead be used to make good the
empty homes. “This simple act”, said
Cllr. Tynan, “could create badly needed building jobs, reduce the housing list,
improve the look of many areas and actually increase the revenue of the City
Council through rent”.
Cllr. Tynan said that the government had
become ideologically blinkered against anything progressive, viewing everything
purely on grounds of immediate cost rather than weighing up the benefits of a
scheme. “They would rather leave the 500
homes boarded up and pay for them to
remain derelict than invest in the future because the whole culture of
austerity has infected their thinking.
They simply refuse to see the obvious”, said the Workers’ Party
Councillor
Concluding, Cllr. Tynan appealed to the
City Manager for urgent action to deal with the ongoing problems with the
district heating system at Glenamoy Lawn and Ardbhaile, saying it was causing
serious hardship for many residents who were paying for heat they were not getting
from the system.
