COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

MOTION NO. 12

MOTION: Councillor G. O'Connell

"That this Area Committee requests the Chief Executive provide a report into the situation of the house at address provided, which the Council was in the process of taking over as a derelict site and which is again returning to an even worse state and is the focal point for a lot of anti-social activity."

REPORT:

The Council has not at any point to date initiated any procedure towards proposed acquisition of this site under the provisions of the Derelict Sites Act 1990.

By way of background: South Dublin County Council has been monitoring this site since December 2012. It remained a vacant site for a number of years and was regularly monitored by the Building Inspector. On 21 May 2015 the site was inspected and it was found that the windows to the rear had been broken by local youths.  A Section 11 was issued, however, there was no contact from the owner. The site continued to deteriorate due to vandalism. The site progressed to a Section 8(7) under the Derelict Sites Register, 1990 as amended and was placed on the Derelict Sites Register on 15th August 2016. The site was boarded up by South Dublin County Council in November 2016. In December 2016 a representative of the registered owner commenced work on the site.

The representative of the registered owner completed a number of works and improvements to the site. However, vandals continued to interfere with the progress on site and new replaced windows, new doors and gates were destroyed by anti-social behaviour. This thwarted the plans to abate the dereliction, get the site ready for the rental market and off the Derelict Sites Register in 2017.

In January 2018 it is reported that new windows were smashed for a second time. As Enforcement & Licencing were temporarily unable to contact the representative, the Council arranged for the securing of the garage door and front downstairs window. The representative of the site is in contact with Enforcement & Licencing and has advised that they hope to complete works on the site as soon as possible to abate the dereliction, and have the site removed from the register.

A Derelict Sites Levy of 3% of the market value of the site has been levied on the registered owner for the year 2018.