Additional funding granted for emergency repairs on 'falling apart' Oliver Bond flats
Additional funding will be made available for emergency repairs at the Oliver Bond flats.
While residents at Oliver Bond House in Dublin 8 were devastated by news that long-promised regeneration works were delayed after the Department of Housing rejected a funding proposal from Dublin City Council , talks between Minister for Housing James Browne and stakeholders on Tuesday have been described as “positive”.
At Wednesday’s South Central Area Committee meeting, Social Democrats Councillor Lesley Byrne outlined commitments made by the Minister that included additional financing for flats that are in need for urgent maintenance works right now. She said he also agreed to reinstate government funding for the Oliver Bond Regeneration Forum, which DCC had been previously paying for.
She said the Minister committed to attending a future Forum meeting and that planned additional housing at Bridgefoot Street would remain part of the Oliver Bond regeneration plan. Cllr Byrne said it’s important that they prioritise which homes are in most urgent need of works and start using the additional funding as soon as possible, stating “we should be over-resourced to get this situation sorted”.
Labour Cllr Darragh Moriarty said the meeting with Minister Browne was welcome but that they are now waiting for the “positive vibes” to transform into tangible results. He said a lot of focus has been on the setbacks Phase 1 of the regeneration has experienced so far and that they shouldn’t lose sight of the importance of ensuring it doesn’t cause significant disruption to the entire regeneration process.
He described the “vociferous backlash from community and local representatives" as they demanded a “U-turn” on the denied funding proposal, but said it is “important we don't put all our eggs in the Phase 1 basket”. Cllr Moriarty said they have made the mistake in the past of putting so much energy into “getting over the first hurdle” that it ultimately ends up meaning later phases take longer than they should.
Cllr Moriarty said there will likely be compromises to get the plan over the line and while there may be a “tinkering with numbers in Phase 1” they should simultaneously be looking at how they can ensure the Oliver Bond masterplan doesn’t run into more problems down the line. But he remained positive and said they look to be “on the road to a breakthrough” that will hopefully come “in the next couple of weeks”.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Ammar Ali spoke about the importance of carrying out emergency repair works on Oliver Bond homes that are most in need, stating he visited flats that are “not even liveable for one second”. “They were falling apart and we need to take strict action - children are living in terrible conditions in those flats,” he said.
The rationale behind the rejected funding for blocks L, M and N of Oliver Bond House, as well as a new 42 home development at Bridgefoot Street was that its proposed amalgamation would significantly reduce housing units and did not constitute “good value for money”. Sinn Féin Cllr Ciaran Ó Meachair defended the amalgamation as necessary, stating many don’t meet modern space requirements and that variety is required to avoid the anti-social behaviour that can occur when too many one-bedroom flats are spaced together.
“I hope the Minister got a wake up call from the voices in the room,” he said, stating the Department's proposed plan for Oliver Bond would be for a complex composed of several hundred single person households. “I am unaware of anywhere in the world where a complex that size of bedsits and one-bedroom flats exists and actually works,” he said.
“For regeneration to work there has to be an amalgamation of flats and houses for families. Councillors from the South West Inner City have collectively said we won’t support a regeneration of Oliver Bond Phase 1 that doesn’t include the Bridgefoot Street site, we made it clear that has to be part of it.”
Green Party Cllr Michael Pidgeon also stressed the importance of re-examining the overall Oliver Bond masterplan and said it is not just about providing what the residents want but “the wider responsibility to the city”. He said there has been awareness that existing flats were too small even when they were built and to not address this will “perpetuate problems for decades to come”.
The manager’s response stated that the meeting “went well” and “Minister Brown could feel the frustration in the room and acknowledge that”. They said he is firstly looking for a solution for blocks L, M and N and that “there will be compromises”. He asked that they "accelerate development at Bridgefoot Street” as part of the Oliver Bond regeneration and the council confirmed this will be a mix of one, two and three-bedroom homes.
Dublin City Council state there will be “compromises on every side” but they endeavour to “reach an agreement everyone can be happy with”. Emergency maintenance of properties is a priority and the council has a list of homes that are most in need of repair.
This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme