Anti-social residents in Mayo estate 'destroying the lives' of their neighbours

RESIDENTS in a large housing estate in Castlebar who are 'destroying the lives' of other residents should be 'shown the door' according to local councillors.

Anti-social behaviour caused by a small number of residents in a large social housing estate in Castlebar was brought to the attention of local councillors by other residents who expressed concern for their safety. They informed councillors that the anti-social behaviour which included fighting on the street, domestic abuse and threatening behaviour was getting out of hand and needs to be dealt with immediately.

The matter was raised by local councillors at the monthly meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District where they called for swift action to be taken by Mayo County Council and An Garda Síochana to put a stop to it.

Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne said that as well as anti-social behaviour there was an incident of violence in the estate and matters were getting out of hand while Cllr Cyril Bourke commented that the estate did not sound like a nice place to live at the moment.

Independent councillor Harry Barrett called for a dedicated unit within the housing department of Mayo County Council to deal with incidents of anti-social behaviour.

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“To get ahead of this we need the administrative staff along with the legal staff to start putting a case together on these people who are destroying lives in that estate.

“We need a unit in place to put pressure on these people. If they cannot act civilly in a housing estate they should be shown the road because it is not good enough. If they are blaggarding people in this estate they should be moved on immediately. Lets get ahead of it and put the pressure on and make files on these people,” he said.

While not disagreeing with his proposal, Cathaoirleach of Castlebar Municipal District, Cllr Donna Sheridan said that there was not enough staff to deploy to the new unit and also questioned how legal it would be.

Fianna Fáil councillor Al McDonnell agreed saying that the staff in the housing department was already 'run off their feet' and they could not be asked to carry out additional duties.

His fellow Fianna Fáil councillor Blackie Gavin lamented the disbanding of the local Joint Policing Committees saying that these issues of anti-social behaviour should be dealt with.

“We had a great relationship with the Garda Siochana down through the years and any problem was sorted out there and then. We need to meet with the Superintendent to see what is going on,” he said.

Mayo County Council's anti-social behaviour policy for housing estates was adopted in 2019 and David Mellett, Head of the Castlebar Municipal District said that all steps of the policy had to be followed before tenants can be evicted.

“We cannot jump to repossession without going through the full policy in all its steps. At the minute we have five anti-social cases [in Castlebar] and three have come in the last week. We have a good relationship with the Gardaí and have good conversations around these issues but certainly there could potentially be more done,” he said.

Regarding the issue raised by the councillors, he said that there are 81 houses in that particular estate and two residents seemed to be at the root of the problems.

“They are having an impact on everyone and we are dealing with it through policy,” he said.

Cllr Kilcoyne questioned why good tenants have been placed in emergency accommodation while houses have been given to 'thugs'.

Cllr Sheridan praised the council staff in how they have dealt with previous incidents of anti-social behaviour in the town and proposed they have a workshop with the Garda Community Engagement Officer on how to best deal with issues into the future.