Regeneration Fiasco

constantg

http://irishexaminer.com/ireland/5-years-116m-and-not-a-house-built-179892.html


Discuss...

Kess73

For people who may not be able to open the link at work.

5 years, €116m and not a house built
By Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

Thursday, January 12, 2012

AFTER five years and a spend of €116 million, not a single house has been built under Limerick’s regeneration plan, and some families are now worse off than before.

The head of the Limerick Regeneration Agency, Brendan Kenny, said the plan to transform Moyross, Southill, Ballinacurra Weston and St Mary’s Park had left some families worse off — with 1,000 residents moving out because of the lack of progress. However, he said the plan must go ahead, if the areas were not to deteriorate further.

The plan to build and replace 7,240 homes, a mix of 2,450 local authority houses and 4,790 private dwellings, was unveiled in 2007 with a June 2012 deadline. Work on the first houses, a 33-unit project in Moyross, only got under way last August and will not be ready until October.

The original plan envisaged a spend of €3 billion — a combination of €1.6bn in public funds and €1.4bn in private funding — but just €116m has been allocated by the Government.

Almost €90m of that has gone to Limerick City Council for the demolition of about 900 houses during the course of the regeneration programme to date.

"We have to be conscious that some people’s living conditions are worse than what they were, as nice neighbours have moved out and there are vacant sites beside them," said Mr Kenny. "It has a long way to go and, while there has been progress, we are disappointed with the level of progress.

"It was never going to be done in five years."

He said up to 1,000 residents in the estates had opted to set up new homes in other parts of the city and suburbs.

He said the national and global economic downturn had had a huge impact on the aspirations of the plan, but warned the work of the agency must continue after its remit ends in June.

He said communities in the four areas were much stronger due to initiatives by the agency and there had been a dramatic drop in crime levels. He warned, if the regeneration process was wound up, the areas would be left in a worse situation than before 2007.

He hoped a further €40m would be allocated this year to ensure a further building project in Southill can be completed.

John Gilligan, who was mayor of Limerick at the time the plan was unveiled, said: "While it ran into major problems, it also seemed to embark on a policy of demolition of houses without a corresponding policy of rebuilding.

"Both should have gone in tandem. In my own area, St Mary’s Park, a lot of houses were demolished, but not one single house built. They should have put stone on stone.

"It is now years behind and has encountered a lot of problems. But, all in all, regeneration has been very positive for Limerick and has brought change, but not all was feasible.

"Overall it has been very positive and I still support it, even though it has encountered serious setbacks."

theparish

I can't believe it cost 90million to demolish 900 houses,100k per house.

touts

theparish wrote: »

I can't believe it cost 90million to demolish 900 houses,100k per house.

You forget that this is a public service project. You can't just get a guy with a bulldozer to knock down the house as you would in the private sector. In the public sector you have administrators to approve the concept of the demolition, accountants to cost the demolition, Managers to order the demolition, Health and Safety inspectors to oversee the demolition, Environmental impact inspectors to make sure the environment is not harmed in any way with dust and dirt, Recycling experts to make sure recycling is a key outcome of the demolition, Hazardous waste inspectors to oversee the disposal of the rubble, Archeologists to peer into the hole left behind, Union officials to make sure custom and practice is followed, Social workers to make sure all former residents are taken care of, Physcologists to allow former residents properly fill in the compo claims for trauma at seeing their home destroyed, a team of lawyers to make sure all the paperwork is properly filled in, and finally a firm of consultants to review the plans and tell them how to knock down the house efficently.

This was never a runner. Could you imagine the meeting when Enda and Michael went in front of the Troika and said "You remember all those empty houses and ghost estates we told you about. Well we have a great plan here to build 7000 new houses and not use those ones at all."

Itsdacraic

You mean all their unqualified sons and daughters that they hired weren't able to get the job done. Now there's a shock.

Berty

5 years on and not a house built.

I was in Moyross(Eurospar Car Park) the other day and clearly from the road you can see lots of new houses being built just up on the hill.

I think that maybe a lot of new houses have not been finished but the houses are being built.

Anyway a lot of the money went to people as well whom own their own houses to buy new windows, new kitchens, insulation but I do agree a lot has been wasted on the mysterious family purporting to be running the agency.

When I read around 2 years ago the son/nephew whom was a director but who was being put through UL to study in business from regeneration money I thought "ah well Ireland has not changed one bit".

Cookiemunster

theparish wrote: »

I can't believe it cost 90million to demolish 900 houses,100k per house.

Beer Baron wrote: »

Anyway a lot of the money went to people as well whom own their own houses to buy new windows, new kitchens, insulation but I do agree a lot has been wasted on the mysterious family purporting to be running the agency.

AFAIK the regeneration was buying the houses from people who wanted to leave the areas for between €30K and €50K and it then cost around €10K to demolish them. But I do agree that a lot of it seems to has gone into a black hole.

jbkenn

touts wrote: »

You forget that this is a public service project. You can't just get a guy with a bulldozer to knock down the house as you would in the private sector. In the public sector you have administrators to approve the concept of the demolition, accountants to cost the demolition, Managers to order the demolition, Health and Safety inspectors to oversee the demolition, Environmental impact inspectors to make sure the environment is not harmed in any way with dust and dirt, Recycling experts to make sure recycling is a key outcome of the demolition, Hazardous waste inspectors to oversee the disposal of the rubble, Archeologists to peer into the hole left behind, Union officials to make sure custom and practice is followed, Social workers to make sure all former residents are taken care of, Physcologists to allow former residents properly fill in the compo claims for trauma at seeing their home destroyed, a team of lawyers to make sure all the paperwork is properly filled in, and finally a firm of consultants to review the plans and tell them how to knock down the house efficently.

This was never a runner. Could you imagine the meeting when Enda and Michael went in front of the Troika and said "You remember all those empty houses and ghost estates we told you about. Well we have a great plan here to build 7000 new houses and not use those ones at all."

To cap it all off, they gave the demolition contract to a Northern Ireland company http://www.tinnelly.com/contactus/index.htm

seachto7

What exactly does a business "consultant" do????

RonMexico

The whole thing stinks to high heaven.

marienbad

Beer Baron wrote: »

5 years on and not a house built.

I was in Moyross(Eurospar Car Park) the other day and clearly from the road you can see lots of new houses being built just up on the hill.

I think that maybe a lot of new houses have not been finished but the houses are being built.

Anyway a lot of the money went to people as well whom own their own houses to buy new windows, new kitchens, insulation but I do agree a lot has been wasted on the mysterious family purporting to be running the agency.

When I read around 2 years ago the son/nephew whom was a director but who was being put through UL to study in business from regeneration money I thought "ah well Ireland has not changed one bit".

What ??? this is news to me . who is this ''mysterious family'' running the agency ?

JD Dublin

As a Limerick person I can't believe we are ripping apart the city again ( verbally ) and I do hold the ''journalist'' behind this story for, once again, putting out a negative story about Limerick.

Does he ever werite anything positive I ask myself. He made a career of writing ''knocking copy'' while he lived in Limerick, he even edited a newspaper while he was there. Now he is writing knocking copy for a national newspaper, it's a total joke.

Watch the PR machine in Galway when a negative story comes out e.g. crypto spiridium / poisoned water there a few years ago. They ( the powers that be ) in Galway tried to hush it up as best they could for fear it would hurt the tourism industry there. I believe journalists and others that influence public attitudes were told in no uncertain terms to keeps thier traps shut. Not so in Limerick.

I'm not saying neptoism shouldn't be rooted out, or that issues shouldn't be aired in public, but €90 million spent to date, with people bought out of their houses, and starts made on many houses ( if we are to believe the other posters above ) puts it in a different light to ''116 Million spent and no houses built''.

My conclusion is that either the journalist in question, or the people who edit the newspaper, decided to put all the negativity into the first few paragraphs - maybe bad news sells better. Why didn't he go and do his research, find that people had been bought out of their houses, and that new houses had been started in Moyross?

Kess73

JD Dublin wrote: »

As a Limerick person I can't believe we are ripping apart the city again ( verbally ) and I do hold the ''journalist'' behind this story for, once again, putting out a negative story about Limerick.

Does he ever werite anything positive I ask myself. He made a career of writing ''knocking copy'' while he lived in Limerick, he even edited a newspaper while he was there. Now he is writing knocking copy for a national newspaper, it's a total joke.

Watch the PR machine in Galway when a negative story comes out e.g. crypto spiridium / poisoned water there a few years ago. They ( the powers that be ) in Galway tried to hush it up as best they could for fear it would hurt the tourism industry there. I believe journalists and others that influence public attitudes were told in no uncertain terms to keeps thier traps shut. Not so in Limerick.

I'm not saying neptoism shouldn't be rooted out, or that issues shouldn't be aired in public, but €90 million spent to date, with people bought out of their houses, and starts made on many houses ( if we are to believe the other posters above ) puts it in a different light to ''116 Million spent and no houses built''.My conclusion is that either the journalist in question, or the people who edit the newspaper, decided to put all the negativity into the first few paragraphs - maybe bad news sells better. Why didn't he go and do his research, find that people had been bought out of their houses, and that new houses had been started in Moyross?

Reading about it elsewhere atm, but it seems that it is a case that €116m has been spent so far, with €90m being what the City Council needed to knock circa 900 houses, and €26m going elsewhere.

There has been plenty of smoke and mirrors with regards to regeneration in Limerick over the years and I would be more than happy to see any wastes of money or bullsh1t promises exposed with those responsible publically named and shamed.

bonzer1again

First of all even as a Limerick man I welcome this kind of reporting....Granted it is a bit sensationalist in the way it is written, but as a journalist his job is to find factually correct news worthy stories and use them to raise awareness of an issue and maybe this will help sell copies of his paper too. I think he has achieved that. I must make clear I have never even met Mr Woulfe....but I can't see how a factually correct report would have better served the wider community if it had been hushed up...as some have suggested here.

It is terrible that when the country is in Dire Straits that such a large amount of money upon first glance appears to have been wasted, but as you read on you see that the overall budget was Billions and if this amount which is about 4 per cent of the overall ORIGINAL budget was spent in peparation for the rest of the regeneration works, which I hope still happens....I welcome it having been spent.

Hopefully this will refocus national attentions on Limerick and if we are lucky to know a sympathetic minister of finance then the rest of this program might yet happen as originally planned!

electrobanana

Quick question..
Do the people that moved out of their house's while the regeneration is taking place have to move back in when its finished? or will they be able to stay where they are now.

Itsdacraic

marienbad wrote: »

What ??? this is news to me . who is this ''mysterious family'' running the agency ?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056098288

Berty

Itsdacraic wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056098288

Ok fair enough, nepotism but still a load of nonsense. No board needs to be that big with the little work they do. More more seems to go wasted in wages to directors and managers than to the work involved or the work that is necessary.

pigtown

Didn't the money to buy the Opera Centre site come from regeneration funds? Also the Northern Relief Road in Moyross is connected to the regeneration project. That surely counts for a large chunk of the €116million.

jbkenn

electrobanana wrote: »

Quick question..
Do the people that moved out of their house's while the regeneration is taking place have to move back in when its finished? or will they be able to stay where they are now.

I would say, the good people of Murroe Fedamore etc., certainly hope so

JD Dublin

bonzer1again wrote: »

First of all even as a Limerick man I welcome this kind of reporting....Granted it is a bit sensationalist in the way it is written, but as a journalist his job is to find factually correct news worthy stories and use them to raise awareness of an issue and maybe this will help sell copies of his paper too. I think he has achieved that. I must make clear I have never even met Mr Woulfe....but I can't see how a factually correct report would have better served the wider community if it had been hushed up...as some have suggested here.

It is terrible that when the country is in Dire Straits that such a large amount of money upon first glance appears to have been wasted, but as you read on you see that the overall budget was Billions and if this amount which is about 4 per cent of the overall ORIGINAL budget was spent in peparation for the rest of the regeneration works, which I hope still happens....I welcome it having been spent.

Hopefully this will refocus national attentions on Limerick and if we are lucky to know a sympathetic minister of finance then the rest of this program might yet happen as originally planned!

I agree that there is no problem with factually correct stories being written - all I am saying is that this person has consistently written negative stories about Limerick.

In all other respects I agree with the points being made by you, and I note that you agree that writing this story in a sensationalist way to highlight the negative is not a good thing. Also I wish to point out, as other posters have done that if the journalist in question had done any research, he would have found out that much of the money spent was to buy people's homes from them to facillitate them moving out. Also that construction on some houses in Moyross has started .

I would question the agenda here - but I don't want to say ''don't like this message - shoot the messenger''.

Have you anything to say about the stream of bad news stories that are featured in the national media about Limerick?

marienbad

Itsdacraic wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056098288

Thanks for this, that some people have the balls to still pull this sort of stuff and don't seem to care is beyonn belief.

To the poster the compalined of negative reporting- it is more not less negative reporting that is required and particularly by local medja.

I don't know how we can bang on about surrendering to Europe and continue with this carry-on. No wonder they have been so agressive with us.

JD Dublin

marienbad wrote: »

Thanks for this, that some people have the balls to still pull this sort of stuff and don't seem to care is beyonn belief.

To the poster the compalined of negative reporting- it is more not less negative reporting that is required and particularly by local medja.

I don't know how we can bang on about surrendering to Europe and continue with this carry-on. No wonder they have been so agressive with us.

Look can you address the points I raised ( about negative reporting ) or refrain from making comments about it. Honestly - stay on topic people.

Amazotheamazing

I can see both sides of it, Woulfe is both a poor writer and a negative one but that being said, this particular story is worth investigating.

Mc Love

jbkenn wrote: »

I would say, the good people of Murroe Fedamore etc., certainly hope so

and the people in the other nice neighbourhoods that were also ruined when asbo families turned up on their doorsteps!

electrobanana

jbkenn wrote: »

I would say, the good people of Murroe Fedamore etc., certainly hope so

Tell me about it iv a family a few doors down from me and really starting to wreak my head with their weekly domestics even on xmas day ffs. but im really getting pretty sick of looking at a f**king horse & sulky:mad:

flutered

the rumour mill has it that when all this finishes up in june, the boss man will move in to another cash cow, the merging of the city and county councils.

constantg

flutered wrote: »

the rumour mill has it that when all this finishes up in june, the boss man will move in to another cash cow, the merging of the city and county councils.

ugh, lovely.....nothing like totally screwing the pooch eh???

europa11

flutered wrote: »

the rumour mill has it that when all this finishes up in june, the boss man will move in to another cash cow, the merging of the city and county councils.

Will the "family circle" be joining him?

What a great start to the merger this would prove to be , and a lucrative bit of work for whoever gets the contract for printing expenses forms.