More staff needed in council's housing directorate, councillor says

A SUGGESTION by local councillor Mick Nugent that Cork City Council report on preventative housing maintenance measures for the year ahead is to be discussed at a meeting of the Housing Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) next month.

The Cork City North-West Sinn Féin councillor also asked the local authority if a programme of works will be influenced by stock surveys and called for the prioritisation of dealing with dampness/mould and the installation of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

“I’m hoping that there will be a report on what will be done this year in terms of housing preventative measures,” he said.

“I think that’s what we need to look at alongside the housing stock surveys.”

“City Council needs more of its own staff as well. There are one hundred plus external staff in the Housing Directorate, but we need more staff to ensure that there is a faster response for the public in dealing with maintenance requests and that there is an official system,” he said.

“There has been some additional staff, engineers appointed, and that’s good but we need to ensure that we have a resourced and efficient system in dealing with housing maintenance and also trying to get ahead of it with preventative measures.”

His comments come following a number of housing maintenance issues highlighted by residents of Fairfield Meadows in Upper Fairfield. Cork City Council’s Housing Directorate met some of the residents last month to hear their concerns and observe some of the maintenance issues that need addressing.

A gathering of some residents was held in November last at the entrance to the estate, calling on the council to step up and carry out required maintenance works on their homes.

In 2018, €1.1m in funding for repairs to homes in Fairfield Meadows and Fairfield Lawn was secured as part of an €11m loan-funded scheme which saw 1,200 local authority homes in Cork city earmarked for repairs or upgrades.

Question

Mr Nugent has suggested that the remainder of the funding could be used to address the existing maintenance issues at Fairfield Meadows. In response to a motion submitted to the council by Mr Nugent requesting an update on the €11 million loan taken down by council for housing maintenance works including works to date, Director of Services of Housing Operations Directorate Niall Ó Donnabháin provided figures which showed that the total expenditure of the maintenance project was €8,929,355. The total expenditure of the programme of maintenance works at Fairfield Meadows and Fairfield Lawn was €731,355.46.

“The contract for remediation works to dwellings at both Fairfield Meadows and Fairfield Lawn was awarded to HG Construction (Ireland) Limited. (73 Units – 1-50 Fairfield Meadows /1-23 Fairfield Lawn),” Mr Ó Donnabháin said.

“The project commenced in June 2022 with correspondence issued to each tenant/occupier within those residential schemes to advise of their appointment, and to coordinate scheduling of works to individual properties.

“HG Construction (Ireland) Limited have, as of 30th March 2023, completed their programme of works to 70 of a total of 73 dwellings at a final account sum of: €731,355.46.

“HG Construction could not gain access to 3 dwellings.

“Housing Maintenance and Area Management staff visited the estates again in December 2023 and met with residents. Relevant maintenance work has been identified and will be followed up.”