CITY councillor Joe Leddin claims that close to 80 housing estates have yet to be transferred to either Limerick City or County Council as part of the ‘taking in charge’ process, leaving thousands of residents without proper amenities or facilities.
Department of Environment regulations places a legal obligation on planning authorities to take in charge residential developments, finished or unfinished, where certain conditions have been met.
According to Cllr. Leddin, there are over 50 housing estates in the city including Log na gCapall, Silverbrook and Fitzhaven, that have yet to be legally transferred from the original developer to the Council.
The Labour Party councillor also told the Limerick Post that residents with young families were still waiting for proper amenities such as traffic calming measures in estates such as Kilteragh, Ballinvoher and Inis Mor.
“Every week, I’m meeting with concerned residents in different housing estates who have highlighted problems such as street lights not working and potholed roads and the situation is made even worse by the fact that there is no ownership or accountability for the estates because of disputes with developers,” said Leddin.
He said that for residents such as those in Kilteragh or Castlewell, whose homes were built by McInerney Builders, the process is “further complicated” as the Council is now having to negotiate with receivers such as KPMG.
“It is unacceptable that people who have paid significant amounts of money to developers over the years should have to live in estates that are not completed properly. Common problems include open spaces overgrown, grass not cut regularly or collected once cut, no maintenance being provided when problems with essential services such as water, light or road issues arise.”
“The responsibility of completing the ‘taking in charge’ process is now under the remit of the Council’s planning department and I will be requesting a full report on all outstanding estates and the progress or lack of with these individual estates,” Cllr. Leddin concluded.
