More delays in plan to upgrade heating system for 262 northside homes

A multi-million euro retrofitting plan for two dilapidated social housing estates on Cork city’s northside has been cast into doubt after the only company to tender has withdrawn.

Heating has long been a serious problem for council tenants in the neighbouring 60-year-old Glenamoy Lawn and Árdbhaile estates in Mayfield, which between them consist of 262 homes.

Now, an €11m plan by the landlord, Cork City Council, to upgrade the homes to a B2, or higher, appears to be in trouble.

A decade ago, the council replaced the estates’ old air-to-water heating system, which cost more than €200,000 a year to maintain.

A new air-to-air system was installed, tenants have complained that it is ineffective, extremely expensive to use, and – unlike the previous system – does not heat the water.

A year ago, tenants in both estates voted to accept a council plan to upgrade their homes to a B2 or higher level of energy efficiency.

Those upgrades would include the installation of air-to-water heat pumps, triple-glazed windows, and improved ventilation and insulation. The council said this would come under the EERP (Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme) Phase 2, which is funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

The council said the first phase of those works would see 36 homes upgraded, with an average budget of €34,000 per home, and a maximum of €42,350, amounting to a maximum cost of more than €1.5m.

Bringing the remaining 226 homes up to B2 under phase two would have cost – using the council’s figures - a maximum of €9.6m, meaning the entire project would have cost more than €11m.

However, alarm bells were sounded at last month’s Cork city north-east ward local area committee (LAC) meeting, when councillors were told tenders for the initial works had come back “well above the amounts that are available through department grants”. The council said it was considering how that shortfall might be addressed.

Now, in a new development, councillors heard at Tuesday evening’s north-east ward LAC meeting that those plans have hit a serious snag.

“Unfortunately, the only qualifying tenderer has withdrawn their tender for the initial phase of Glenamoy/Árdbhaile EERP,” a briefing document from the council’s housing directorate said.

“The housing directorate is engaging with this tenderer and the wider market with a view to retendering as soon as possible and ensuring there is a greater interest in tendering for the project.” 

Workers’ Party councillor Jerrica Struthers said she had been told at the meeting that the tender would not go back out for another two months.

“With the clocks gone back, the long, dark winter nights are hitting us. People are telling me they will end up going to bed early just to try and keep warm under the blankets,” Ms Struthers said.

“The council said they don’t know why the tender was dropped. I asked for interim measures because people are freezing. The council engineer was very sympathetic but said no interim measures were available.” Last week, a spokesperson said the council remained committed to the energy efficiency retrofit in Glenamoy and Ard Bhaile but added it would not comment on “commercially sensitive matters”.