Council checking out up to 200 'derelict' properties

There are a potential 200 sites and properties in Westmeath which are being investigated as potentially derelict, it was revealed at last Monday’s September meeting of Westmeath County Council.A total of twenty eight sites have been put on the Derelict Sites Register, not including another thirty in the Athlone urban area, said Pat Tighe of the Council’s Environment Section.A further twenty sites are at the valuing stage, and 156 are under investigation. In all, a total of 180 sites were investigated during 2009.At Monday’s meeting, Mr. Tighe explained Westmeath County Council’s remit under the 1990 Derelict Sites Act to members.He said that the County Manager, Danny McLoughlin requested that a “strategic approach” to dereliction in Westmeath be adopted.While the local authority is empowered to enter a site to render it non-derelict, or to put in place a levy on the owner until the site is secured, the Council can also look at legal proceedings, or acquiring the site if it is of potential use to the Council.Mr. Tighe told members that derelict sites can often have devastating effects for communities. They are an eyesore, a fire and public safety risk, and can attract anti-social behaviour. In an urban area, dereliction can discourage investors from setting up business.Councillors were appraised of the complaints process, and briefed on what action the Council takes with derelict sites.Mr. Tighe said that the Council’s derelict sites remit was extended last year to take in 40 towns and villages across Westmeath, as opposed to an original eight urban centres.He cited the restoration of the old Bank of Ireland building as a positive example of Council intervention with a derelict site.The Derelict Sites Register is available for public inspection, the meeting heard.Fianna Fáil’s Cllr. Aidan Davitt asked if the Council’s derelict sites policy applied to estates which have been left half-finished by developers, but Mr. Tighe told him that the Council “prefers to deal with this through the Planning Enforcement process”.He told Cllr. Denis Leonard (Labour) that the Council rarely encounters problems finding the owners of sites being investigated. Where people have abandoned properties, the Council contacts the bank to whom the erstwhile owners paid their mortgage.“In most cases the banks have secured the site,” Mr. Tighe said, adding that the Council has “a limited budget for site acquisition”.Athlone’s Cllr. Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran wondered if Westmeath County Council was in the business of acquiring derelict sites, was there was any real monetary gain for the local authority.“You can’t get blood from a turnip,” he said. “You can’t get money from someone who’s bankrupt, or someone who’s left the country.“If there is no end product, what’s in it for us? Solicitors and judges will get plenty of money out of it, but most of these sites will be worthless unless we have another property boom.”The County Manager, Danny McLoughlin said that “the preferred outcome is that the owner will be bring the site to a decent state of repair”.He said that the Council is empowered to charge levies on a site, and that site owners can incur a charge from the Council in a future sale of the property.“It’s very important that we publish the Derelict Sites Register to show we are doing something about dereliction,” the Manager added.Cllr. Dan McCarthy (Labour) cited his ongoing concerns about a derelict site with three houses in Rathwire.Mr. Tighe told him that the owner is subject to a levy for 2010, but the Council has learned that the sites have since been secured, and a contractor has been appointed to finish the sites.The Council official told the meeting about the removal of asbestos from a property in Kinnegad last year, which cost the Council €16,000 to carry out under the Dangerous Structures heading.Cllr. Frank McDermott (Fine Gael) asked the Executive to examine two vacant houses on Main Street, Delvin, as a potential for “infill development”, while his colleague, Cllr. Joe Whelan asked that Irish Rail be asked to intervene in a “disgraceful” situation at the old station in Moate.“The station is a listed building, but it’s being used for activities which aren’t very healthy,” Cllr. Whelan said.On a positive note, Cllr. Mick Dollard (Labour) mentioned one unnamed site in western Mullingar, in which the “elimination” of a derelict property had improved the area’s general appearance.