Noonan's Road residents to protest at Cork City Hall today

SOCIAL housing residents who say they have been “abandoned” by City Hall are planning a public protest ahead of today’s meeting of Cork City Council.

Members of the recently formed Noonan’s Road Residents Committee will gather outside City Hall at 4.30pm on Monday to protest what they say is unsafe local housing accommodation.

A number of residents of the Noonan’s Road buildings have in recent weeks said their homes are unfit for human habitation and they have alleged that despite repeated attempts to contact Cork City Council, there has been no engagement by a tenancy liaison officer.

Several of the homes, seen by The Echo, have multiple occurrences of black mould in interior rooms, and some exterior balconies appear to be crumbling, with a number of their canopies suffering apparent structural instability.

Almost all of the 60 Noonan’s Road flats are local authority housing, and some residents say their homes have suffered repeated infestations of rats and mice, while others claim damaged roofing reveals evidence of leaking asbestos.

The residents are demanding that standing orders at the council meeting be suspended so the health, well-being and psycho-social needs of the residents can be urgently discussed.

William O’Brien, chairperson of the residents’ group, said the residents were demanding that the council carry out risk assessments, housing inspections, and emergency repairs of all local authority homes on Noonan’s Road.

“The message from Noonan’s Road residents that we will be bringing to City Hall will be loud and clear, and that is that all tenants have rights, and Cork City Council needs to protect its tenants,” Mr O’Brien said.

When The Echo highlighted two weeks ago the issues facing Noonan’s Road residents, Fianna Fáil’s Councillor Seán Martin said he had submitted to Cork City Council last month a motion to look at moving the Noonan’s Road tenants to new units within the area, demolishing the current properties and rebuilding.

Describing this proposal as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, Cllr Martin said he was expecting a report from the housing directorate at September’s council meeting.

A spokesperson for Cork City Council said its housing directorate had recently undertaken “a detailed survey and assessment of the housing units at Noonan’s Road with a view to the progression of their refurbishment/upgrade (to include deep energy retrofit).

“The Council is currently reviewing the survey findings in order to consider next steps to the progression of sustainable and appropriate solutions to the housing development at Noonan’s Road.

“Residents and elected representatives will be advised of progress in this regard in due course,” the spokesperson said.