3 days ago
‘Waste of taxpayer money': €2.5m spent on Cork housing estate now being partially demolished
A CORK COUNCILLOR has described the €2.5 million spent on a housing estate in Cork which is now being partially demolished as a 'complete waste of taxpayers' money'.
The delivery of 24 homes in the Kilmore Road area of Knocknaheeny was included as part of the Cork City Northwest Quarter Regeneration (CNWQR) Masterplan, which was launched in 2011.
Work started at the site in March of 2020 but was halted a few months later, leaving homes in an unfinished state for several years.
When asked about the Knockaheeny project in the Dáil last year, then-Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said he had been informed that the project was stalled due to 'complex contractual negotiations' with the previous contractor.
The dispute was settled last May and the project was then put out for tender again last July, with a cost estimate of €5 million, in order to restart and finish the project.
Works started up again under a new contractor this summer and locals said it appeared as though the unfinished homes were being demolished.
At a recent Cork City Council meeting, Sinn Féin councillor Kenneth Collins asked the council for the total amount paid to the original contractor.
He also enquired about 'the percentage amount of work complete that will require demolition and the cost of this demolition'.
The Council said the original contractor had been paid close to €2.5 million last May and that '0% of the works complete will require demolition'.
'There's guys up there with Kango hammers taking down blocks,' Collins told
The Journal
.
'In my opinion, if a structure is up and you have guys Kango hammering blocks down, that's demolition.'
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He said structures which were once three-storey have since been reduced to two-storeys and that the Council informed him that 'there was partial demolition happening'.
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Collins said it's been a 'complete waste of taxpayers' money' and questioned the methods behind awarding the original contract.
He added that councillors had wanted to 'cut loose' the original contractor so that the 'much-needed homes' could be built.
'Eventually it had to go back out to tender and there is a new company in constructing the houses now.
'But they are demolishing the houses and taking housing down.
'I have videos where you can hear the Kango hammer in the background.'
Cork City Council will come before the Oireachtas Housing Committee in the next Dáil term and Collins said 'questions need to be answered'.
Meanwhile, party colleague and Cork TD Thomas Gould remarked that there is 'clear evidence of demolition'.
'Why the Council would issue us with a response saying that no demolition is taking place is beyond me when anyone with two eyes can see that contractors are on site removing work that was completed.'
Gould said locals have been living 'beside a building site for years on end' and that the Council has 'broken commitment after commitment when it came to this site'.
'And now what we have is an admission that €2.5m has been paid to a builder when the Council themselves said there were issues with quality' said Gould.
'What is being done to recoup this money? Are developers now allowed to walk away with taxpayers money after leaving sites like this half-built for years?'
He said the issue is 'indicative of a government who put developers before people' and that 'construction inflation and the cost of demolition likely means the final cost will be double, if not triple, the original projection'.
Gould added that this has 'caused huge delays to a regeneration project that was already moving at glacial pace'.
Cork City Council has been approached for comment.
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