Issued : Friday 9 April, 2010

Details revealed in the media in recent days, of more than 650 unfinished estates in some 28 county council area gives some indication of the shocking extent of the problem we are now facing in this regard.

Thousands of families who have paid very substantial sums of money for their homes now find that they are having to cope with derelict sites, unfinished houses, roads not finished, incomplete sewage systems, and no public lighting.

In some cases families are unable to let their children out to play because of the dangers posed by living in what is often still a building site.

The problem has been intensified by the collapse of the construction industry and the fact that so many builders have now gone out of business.

There many examples of this in the Bandon electoral area. In Belgooley for instance there are estates left like construction sites. In these estates young families purchased homes on the promise of a safe and child friendly environment, yet this is not the case. These local families should not be abandoned by the government and action should be taken at national level to ensure that these estates are finished.  I have found that local authority staff do their best but are hamstrung by the lack of adequate legislative powers.

On simple step the government could take is to accept the Private Members Bill that the Labour Party published last year, the Planning And Development (Taking In Charge Of Estates) (Time Limit) Bill 2009, which would make it easier for residents in housing estates to force developers to complete to the satisfaction of their local authority, any work that may be required on roads, open spaces, car parks, sewers, water mains, drains or other public facilities.

As the law currently stands, residents can only initiate the process of taking an estate in charge, seven years after the relevant planning permission has expired. That period of time is far too long, and it means that residents can spend years living in estates where roads have not been finished to spec, where open spaces are unusable and dangerous and where drainage and water supplies are not up to scratch.

Residents may already be living in the estate before the expiry of the planning permission, and the process of taking in charge can itself take years, so seven years in reality is more like 10 years, 12 years, or even more, for some householders.

Our Bill would go some way at least to addressing this problem and will reduce from seven years to three years the period after expiry of a planning permission for which residents in an unfinished estate must wait before they can initiate proceedings.