Tenant ‘facing three-year wait’ for bathroom extension

One tenant of Westmeath County Council who requires a specially adapted bathroom extension has been told he is facing a three-year wait to see the work done, Cllr David Jones has claimed.

“Many local authority tenants are contacting me on a weekly basis regarding maintenance issues,” Cllr Jones told colleagues and the council executive at the March meeting of Westmeath County Council.

“I think if that man got his own contractor and the local authority paid, he would have this extension built within two to three months, not three years,” said the Sinn Féin man.

He went on to state that the council is “over-reliant” on one maintenance contractor and that it should consider working with three or four contractors.

Stating that the present system was “clearly not working”, he asked that an in-committee meeting be held to discuss issues with maintenance of the local authority’s housing stock.

Support came from Cllr Denis Leonard.

Responding to the claim that a tenant is facing a three-year wait for a bathroom extension, director of services, Jackie Finney, told Cllr Jones that this would not be carried out under the council’s maintenance contract, but under a different programme, for which the council does receive some funding each year.

Encouraging Cllr Jones to contact her with details of the case, Ms Finney went on to clarify that for maintenance works, the council uses the services of three contractors – its main maintenance contractor; its plumbing contractor and a windows and doors contractor.

However, she continued, “they are under pressure. All of them.”

Storm repairs

Continuing, she said that Storm Éowyn had meant a lot of extra repairs.

She said she was also happy to meet with the councillors in committee to discuss housing maintenance in more detail.

Council chief executive Barry Kehoe also confirmed that the council executive is conscious of the issues around housing maintenance and is preparing a report for the next housing SPC on housing maintenance and the options that might be available to the council.

“We would envisage that after the SPC's consideration of it, it would come to the council then for your wider consideration. And maybe that's the time then to have an in committee meeting about it if necessary,” he said.

Cllr Mick Dollard supported this course: “I don't think it's correct that a meeting should be held in committee exclusively just about housing repairs. It doesn't make sense to me. It should go to the SPC,” he said.