Exposed drainpipes at council flat in Cork city not fixed after nine years 

A social-housing tenant who claims that he was told in 2016 by Cork City Council not to use his rear yard until work on exposed drainpipes was completed says that, nine years on, the work has yet to be done.

On March 1, 2024, The Echo reported that Michael Linehan, who lives in a council flat on Cherry Tree Rd, said his housing officer had warned him on June 22, 2016, to stay out of the rear yard until essential maintenance works could be carried out.

Mr Linehan says that, a month after that story appeared, a council official visited him, said works would begin soon, and never returned. More than a year later, the rear of the property remains in a subpar state.

A wastewater pipe runs down from the upstairs flat, jutting at a 90-degree angle, almost 3ft above ground level and crossing the entrance to the rear yard, constituting a clear trip hazard, before joining an open, ground-level drain.

Wastewater from this pipe — and from drainpipes from the ground-floor flat —sits in fetid pools in the yard.

A shed, which runs the length of the back wall of the yard, shows cracks on the walls, while the roof appears to have broken loose of the walls.

Claimed

Mr Linehan claimed that he was told nine years ago that the shed would need to be demolished, so new drainage pipes could be laid, and he said that the condition of the building has deteriorated since.

“After the article appeared in The Echo last year, the end of March, maybe the start of April, a man came out from the council and said he’d be back, but I never saw him again,” Mr Linehan said.

Separately, he said he requested in 2018 that his bath be replaced with a shower, but this has yet to occur.

There is mould and damp on the walls and ceiling of Mr Linehan’s kitchen and he said that the extraction fan does not work. He has asked that the council move him to more appropriate accommodation.

“Here I am, a year on from that article and you could say it’s like they’ve forgotten me,” he said.

Community housing activist William O’Brien said he had been taken aback a year ago by the conditions in which Mr Linehan was living, but he was appalled that, a year on, no work had been done.

“Tenancy support officers need to ensure they engage in cases like this to make sure Michael has access to a safe and healthy living environment, which is fundamental and necessitates proactive interventions to resolve these ventilation-related challenges,” he added. 

Cork City Council was asked for comment.