Mayo County Council accused of being the worst offenders for derelict buildings

Castlebar councillors have accused Mayo County Council of being the worst offenders when it comes to letting buildings go derelict.

The problem of dereliction in Castlebar was once again raised by local councillors who called on owners of vacant properties to ensure they do not go into dereliction and to at least paint them.

Fine Gael councillor Ger Deere raised the subject at the monthly meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District where he praised the owners of a vacant building on Ellison Street for doing a 'wonderful job to paint it' while highlighting that council owned buildings close by were in a 'despicable' state.

“We are forcing an individual to do up their premises and to think Mayo County Council are letting down the whole town. Lets just do the job the individual did two yards down the road and get our act together,” he said.

Cllr Deere also criticised the HSE who own Hill House on Ellison Street for leaving it in a 'deplorable' state and urged the council to write to them to ' to paint it or powerwash it'.

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He was supported by Cllr Blackie Gavin who asked Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne to raise the matter at the next HSE Regional Health Forum meeting.

Cllr Kilcoyne pointed the finger of blame at the level of dereliction in the town at the Chief Executive of Mayo County Council who he claimed was not taking the matter seriously.

“Ultimately the buck stops with the chief executive who is responsible and should be bringing forward proposals to get these things done. In fairness to the department they are saying there is money available to do all these things,” he said.

Cllr Donna Sheridan asked the council make it a policy that any buildings which are in the ownership of the council should be painted and not allowed to go into decline. She asked that this is adopted and funding set aside for it in the next housing budget.

Meanwhile, Mayo Council Council have stated that they do not inspect their own housing stock and any problems have to be brought to their attention by the tenant.

The question was raised by Fine Gael councillor Cyril Burke who said that inspectors employed by the county council go around to private tenancies to inspect buildings and asked if they do the same for their own stock.

“Do these inspectors inspect council properties and what about the poor person living in council property and has the same issues?” he asked.

In response, David Reddington, senior official with Mayo County Council said that local authority properties are treated differently to private accommodation.

“It is up to tenants to inform us of concerns and when they do we look at it straight away. We take on board the issues and act accordingly,” he said.