Cork Council to buy house left empty since 2007

Cork City Council is set to acquire and demolish a Bishopstown home which has been vacant for two decades.

The council is progressing with the acquisition of 1 Park Gate Villas on Bishopstown Rd, located on a 1.6-acre green space which saw protests from residents in 2007 over concern that apartments would be built there.

The home is on the corner of the green, which has been used as a public park since the mid-1960s, and both were placed on the market in 2007.

Residents were shocked at the time to learn that title to the green, which they had maintained since the estate was built in the late 1960s, was included in the title to the house.

They mounted a major campaign, including the setting-up of a website and the staging of a community fun day on the green, to highlight the issue. The campaign to save Bishopscourt Green also prompted city councillors to amend the city development plan to protect all open green spaces from development.

The home was bought, and four months later, initial plans to build four two-storey houses and maintain 60% of the public green space were proposed.

In January 2008, these plans, which were subject to 95 objections, were refused by the council. The then-owner submitted a much larger proposal and in July 2008, Cork City Council planners refused to grant planning permission for a 44-apartment and underground car park scheme on the site, after 160 objections from local residents were received by council planners.

Despite appeals, the green has remained unbuilt on since. The house was already vacant at the time of its sale, and has remained so, with its condition deteriorating in the nearly 20-year period since.

Minutes from a Cork City Council meeting in 2016 show that Fine Gael’s Jerry Buttimer, then a councillor for the city’s south-east ward, asked for an update on the property and was told that the house had been on the derelict sites register since the previous year, and that the owners were invoiced for a derelict sites levy of €4,500 in January 2016.

Minutes of council meetings show that the site remained on the derelict sites register in 2018, but property records show sales of the home and land in 2018 and again in 2022.

Mr Buttimer, now a TD and minister of state, this week welcomed confirmation from Cork City Council that it is set to acquire the property.

He said: “Following many representations over several years, by myself and other local councillors, I am pleased to see progress on the issue, with Cork City Council set to acquire, and subsequently demolish, the property.

“This vacant property has been a source of ongoing concern for residents in Bishopstown for many years. I very much welcome Cork City Council’s decision to move forward with its acquisition and the planned works to clear and level the site.”

Cork City Council has indicated that works will commence as soon as the acquisition process is completed, he added.

Mr Buttimer concluded: “This is a positive step for the local community and will help improve the area for residents. I will continue to work closely with my colleague, councillor Gary O’Brien, in Cork City Council to ensure progress is delivered.”