LIMERICK City and County Council (LCCC) has issued over 2,500 derelict site notices in the last five years.
Since 2029 to the end of August 2024, the local authority sent out 2,672 notices pursuant to the Derelict Sites Act.
In response to a question from Independent councillor Maria Donoghue at the last full Council meeting, LCCC explained that it has entered the particulars of 537 cases on the Derelict Sites Register since 2019, and the details of 208 cases have been removed in the same period.
“Vacant homes and derelict sites come to the attention of the Council in various ways,” said head of the Property Management Department, Jayne Leahy, told Cllr Donoghue.
“Council staff proactively survey local areas in our towns, villages, and city; reports are made by the public, and complaints on offending properties are received from local residents, community groups, and from elected representatives.”
Ms Leahy said that to deal effectively with derelict sites, the Council uses powers under the Derelict Sites Act to serve owners with statutory notices, when, for example, “certain remedial works are required, when the site is entered in the Derelict Sites Register, when a market value has been determined, to demand payment of a Derelict Sites Levy, or to notify the owner of its intention to acquire the derelict site compulsorily, and if a vested order is ultimately made for the property”.
Case details, Ms Leahy added, remain entered in the register until the site comes out of dereliction, and it no longer detracts from the area, and is ideally put back into more effective use.
“In cases where no progress is being made by an owner to solve the dereliction and the site continues to detract from the neighbourhood, and where the owner has already served with a series of statutory notices, the Council may consider the compulsory acquisition of the site with the intention to make the property available for more productive and beneficial future uses.”
