‘It should not take four years to finish 24 homes’: Outrage at stalling of Knocknaheeny regeneration 

PART of Knocknaheeny’s regeneration has stalled due to a contractual wrangle between Cork City Council and a developer involved in building 24 houses that remain unfinished, more than three years after they were started.

The 24 houses at Kilmore Rd Lower in Cork’s northside have become a major source of frustration, and an eyesore, Sinn Féin councillor Kenneth Collins said.

Details about the unfinished houses were obtained in a Freedom of Information request made by Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould from the Department of Housing.

The Cork City Northwest Regeneration Masterplan and Implementation Report was published in 2011. The strategy outlined a proposal to carry out wholesale demolition of the housing stock in Knocknaheeny that has not been the subject of previous refurbishment works. Part of the regeneration plan consists of 24 houses at the Kilmore Rd, but construction has stalled due to “quality control issues”.

Mr Collins said “it’s very frustrating because you have people in the regeneration area waiting for their new homes”.

So far, no definite timeline for completion has been given.

“These homes are required, there is a housing crisis on,” said Mr Collins.

“The people of the regeneration area are the ones who are suffering here. It doesn’t look good, the optics of it.”

Mr Gould asked Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, on December 14 last year, further to a parliamentary question on May 5, if his attention had been drawn to the fact that 2C of the Northwest Quarter Regeneration programme had not been completed.

“The detailed advancement of housing and other works under the Cork Northwest Quarter Regeneration programme is a matter, in the first instance, for Cork City Council,” responded Mr O’Brien.

He said that Cork City Council had “advised my department that the Phase 2C construction contract for 24 houses in the Cork City Northwest Quarter Regeneration is not complete as there is a quality control issue with the works on site which the employer, Cork City Council, is addressing contractually with the main building contractor.”

“My department continues to work closely with Cork City Council to progress the ambitious and far-reaching regeneration programme in the city.”

FRUSTRATION

However, Mr Gould said: “In the middle of a housing emergency, homes have been left idle by Cork City Council for months on end. It should not, under any circumstances, take four years from enabling to completion of 24 homes.

“People are contacting me weekly. These empty homes are an eyesore, they are frustrating for the local community, and they are a constant reminder that the Northwest Regeneration has now taken over two decades to progress.”

A spokesperson for Cork City Council said: “Compared to current delivery of hundreds of social and, more recently, affordable homes on other city council housing sites across the city as part of the council’s housing delivery programme, funded by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the completion of the construction contract and delivery of the 24 social homes at Kilmore Rd is behind time.

“Works are not currently being progressed on site by the contractor, and Cork City Council continues to work with the appointed contractor with a view to the earliest possible delivery of more quality homes at this location.”