Family homes in Cork village left idle for 18 years as councils deny responsibility

Three family homes in Glanmire have been vacant for two decades, with neither Cork City Council nor Cork County Council taking responsiblity for them.

The homes — numbers 7, 8, and 33 Copper Valley Heights in Riverstown — were built in the mid-2000s, as part of a private housing development, but transferred to the ownership of Cork County Council.

In 2019, the city boundary expanded to areas including Glanmire, meaning local authority properties in the region moved from county to city ownership and these homes should have been included in the move.

A neighbour, who bought her house in the estate as a new-build 18 years ago, told The Echo that the properties had never been occupied, and that the floors in them are not even finished. Many people have been interested in buying the homes on the private market since, but have been unable to, she said.

Cork City Council said, at a recent local area committee meeting, that the three properties “remain in the ownership of Cork County Council, who have encountered legal issues with title”.

However, Cork County Council declined to comment, when asked by The Echoabout the status of the properties and how long they had been vacant, while a spokesperson for Cork City Council said it “has no comment, as this matter is with Cork County Council”.

In response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for records of the properties — showing when they were acquired by Cork County Council and the dates the properties were occupied and vacated since they were acquired — Cork County Council said it “does not hold the records”.

However, the county council also said it had “determined that these records are held” by Cork City Council, and had thus transferred the request to the city’s offices.

Cork City Council refused the FOI request under a section of the FOI act that states it “may refuse to grant the request, where the record concerned does not exist or cannot be found after all reasonable steps to ascertain its whereabouts have been taken”.

“In this case, these properties do not form part of Cork City Council housing stock,” the council said.

Labour councillor John Maher told The Echo: “Bureaucracy and red tape should be cut, especially in a housing emergency. Every week, I am contacted by constituents that would do anything for a home, and yet bureaucracy keeps these homes lying vacant.

“No organisation, landlord, or State body should be sitting on vacant properties: Get people living in them and sort the paperwork afterwards.

“It’s not fair on the existing community, who would prefer to have a neighbour or people wanting to get a home through Cork City Council. No State body should be sitting on vacant properties or land during this emergency.”

Fine Gael TD Colm Burke said: “I am really surprised that this has occurred. I understood that when the city boundary was extended, a full schedule of properties to be transferred would be provided, but that obviously did not happen.

“Now we have these three houses vacant during this time of huge demand for housing. They should have been tackled in a much faster timeframe.

“There’s also an element of accountability: The taxpayer paid for these properties. It must be prioritised to make sure they are occupied as soon as possible.”