Residents of Gurranabraher flats feel like ‘forgotten people’ by council

CORK City Council tenants in 60-year-old flats on the northside claim they are “the forgotten people”, living in homes which are prone to leaking ceilings, dampness, black mould and rat infestation, while their landlord mostly ignores their complaints.

Several council tenants in the Baker’s Road flats in Gurranabraher showed The Echo internal walls and ceilings which are speckled with black mould and covered in peeling plaster.

The Baker’s Road flats were built in the 1960s and follow a “three-storey maisonette” design which was introduced to council housing across the city by the then-city architect Eamon O’Byrne.

Over the past three months, The Echo has highlighted appalling living conditions in flats at Noonan’s Road, St Finbarr’s Road, Fort Street and Dean Street, all of which are examples of the O’Byrne three-storey maisonette design.

Council tenants in those flats have said they feel “abandoned”, “ignored” and “forgotten” for years in crumbling, dangerous homes 10 years past their planned 50-year lifespan and prone to leaks, damp, black mould and rodent infestation.

Now, tenants in the 20 Baker’s Road flats say that, just like their southside counterparts, living in dilapidated homes long past their use-by date.

Catherine Seery has lived in Baker’s Road flats for over 35 years, and she is, she said, the longest-serving tenant there.

Ms Seery said she had seen a continuing deterioration in conditions in her home over that time, and she claimed that Cork City Council has failed to respond to complaints.

“The damp is just getting worse and worse, especially in the kitchen, and you see the plaster on the ceiling is constantly peeling away and falling, no matter how many times I paint over it,” she said.

“I’ve spent over 10 grand of my own money on the kitchen. Everything is new, new units, new tiles, just trying to keep the damp away.

“The council are useless to deal with. You might as well be talking to the wall,” she claimed.

Ms Seery’s daughter, Kayleigh, said the dampness was “just about manageable” during the summer months, but became unbearable in winter.

“No matter how many times you put bleach on the walls and paint them, they’re black with mould nearly straight away again ,” she said.

Liam O’Connor, another long-term tenant, said he could not understand why the Baker’s Road flats were part of the regeneration of the neighbouring Knocknaheeny.

“We’re right on the doorstep of Knocknaheeny, so why can’t we be part of the regeneration? Instead they’re just putting plasters on things, that just doesn’t work, and we’re sick of it,” he said.

“I have mushrooms growing on the walls and the ceilings, I have black mould, I have kids that I won’t bring up here because you couldn’t put them into bedrooms with the dampness, it’s just not on.” Mr O’Connor said rats were an ongoing issue in and around the Baker’s Road flats, possibly coming up through the drains, and he said they regularly ate their way through wiring.

“The reports I’ve sent in, complaints really, nothing has been done by the council. It’s always been like this, and all of our complaints keep falling on deaf ears,” Mr O’Connor said.

“What are we paying rent for? They just do nothing. They come out once in a while, look at things, and they do nothing.

“We’re up here like the forgotten people, and we’re just sick of it.” Thomas Gould, Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central, said it was “disgraceful” that tenants of Cork City Council were, he said, being forced to spend thousands of euro in an effort to maintain council properties which were not fit for purpose.

“This is constant, and the money it is costing them, and the money then to heat the place. There are people here who had to go pre-pay power, because they were trying to manage the cost of heating,” he said.

In late July, the chief executive of Cork City Council, Ann Doherty, visited the southside Noonan’s Road and St Finbarr’s Road flats, which follow the same O’Byrne three-storey maisonette design as the Baker’s Road flats, and expressed her shock at living conditions there.

Ten days later, The Echo published details from a December 2022 Cork City Council draft report on the Noonan’s Road and St Finbarr’s Road flats, which found “major structural defects” in the flats and recommended in the strongest terms the complete demolition of the buildings.

Niall Ó Donnabháin, director of services at the city council’s housing directorate, wrote to councillors stressing that “while structural issues exist that would impact on the implementation of any retrofit programme, the buildings at Noonan’s Road, St Finbarr’s Road, Fort Street and Dean Street are not unsafe”.

Cork City Council did not respond to requests for comment on conditions in the Baker’s Road flats.