‘No resources’ to take all unfinished estates in hand

CLARE County Council doesn’t have the resources to take on all the unfinished estates in its functional area, it was claimed at this week’s council meeting.
Councillor Joe Arkins put forward a motion asking for information on the number of housing estates that have been completed or partially completed that haven’t been taken in charge.
He also sought information on estates that developers have applied to have taken in charge, the number of requests for taking in charge that the council has received from affected residents under Section 180 of the planning act and if the council has sought legal advice on the risks of not complying with such requests.
In his reply, director of services Ger Dollard stated, “At present there are 142 housing estates in the county that the planning authority has an active interest in. These vary from estates which are substantially complete and the council is in receipt of Taking in Charge/Section 180 requests to unfinished housing developments and estates where the council is pursuing enforcement action. These developments are all at varying stages of completion.
“The time periods involved can vary from relatively recent developments to developments that have been completed for in excess of 20 years.”
Details of bonds for housing developments were provided and of the number of Section 180 requests.
“The planning authority currently have 113 bonds in place for housing developments to the value of €5.2 million. Of these, 17 have an expiry date in 2013 and are valued at €724,000. The planning authority has procedures in place to ensure that bonds do not expire.
“There are currently 31 formal applications for Taking in Charge from developers as set out on the attached list. It is considered that a small number of proposals (four) of these have not progressed due to inactivity on the part of the developer.
“The council has received requests for taking in charge by house owners/residents in 18 estates. As all Taking in Charge/Section 180 requests received to date are being processed or have progressed to varying stages, legal advice on the matter has not been sought. The responsibility for bringing estates to a satisfactory standard rests with the developer. The council does not have the resources, financial and staffing, to unilaterally take on the extensive liabilities that arise on these estates.”
Councillor Arkins raised what he called the “recent debacle in Avoca” in which residents were asked to pay development charges by their local authority.
He claimed this was an example of “Séan Citizen being asked to pay for light regulation by a public authority”.
The Ruan man said this “might be vaguely legal but is certainly immoral”.
He said it was obvious from Mr Dollard’s reply that responsibility lies with developers, but he noted that there are situations where the developer “as a legal entity no longer exists.”
He claimed the council could do with a legal opinion on whether or not it would be liable in the event of an injury if it didn’t take action with regard to a Section 180 request.
Councillor Arkins said while there are 18 requests for Section 180s this year, the figure could double that by next year.
Fianna Fáil’s Michael Kelly said a lot of people are very worried following the situation in County Wicklow.
“Who is responsible if there are accidents? There needs to be clarification,” he asked.
Fine Gael’s Johnny Flynn said there was huge concern among residents of unfinished estates about the implications of the liquidation of IBRC, which he said holds three-quarters of the bonds for such estates.
“When meeting the residents, it’s dreadful to outline the light touch regulation that we had for 25 years,” he commented.
Councillor Cathal Crowe said that while Westbury has been recently taken over by the council, it is only the tip of the iceberg.
He said in one case, the council had indicated it wouldn’t take over an estate until it was connected to a main sewer, even though this hadn’t been a condition of planning.
“You can’t retrospectively raise the standard or meddle or mess around with contractual papers,” he stated.
Fianna Fáil’s PJ Kelly questioned how often the council had failed to call in bonds before their expiry.
Responding to some of the questions raised, Mr Dollard said Taking in Charge is a “very significant issue” and that different problems have to be brought to some kind of resolution at some point in time.
In some cases he said it hadn’t been envisaged that the council would take over the estate, but that it would be handled by a management company.
He also said that the council taking on all liabilities for all estates in question “clearly isn’t a runner”.
Mr Dollard said there are no plans to take any steps similar to what was done in Wicklow and that he found it hard to understand how such a situation arose. He said, ordinarily, solicitors make sure that development contributions are made before a house purchase goes ahead.
He also said that attempts would be made to seek clarity on the impact of the liquidation of IBRC on bonds.