Criticism as council rejects housing appeal

Criticism as council rejects housing appeal

25 March 2015

DOWN Council has decided against taking responsibility for maintaining open space areas at a private housing development in Castlewellan.

The decision was made after the council sought legal opinion on a request it takes over the land at the Grange development in the town from a management company which is billing residents for maintaining the area.

The issue was first debated several weeks ago when councillor Stephen Burns said residents insist  management agreements did not form part of their purchase agreements. Home owners have been refusing to pay any money to the management company because they are not getting the service they expect. 

He revealed the amount the management company claims it is owed is in the region of £6,000 which equates to around £400 per household, with the charge applying to 51 of the 69 homes.

At last week’s final meeting of Down Council, chief executive John Dumigan said the local authority’s lawyer said while it could take over the land, his advice was that it should not. He said the lawyer’s opinion is that if the council agrees to take on the open space it “opens up the floodgates” to similar requests from people living in other estates which have been left by developers.

Councillor Burns said the legal opinion “is what it is” and agreed while it is the lawyer’s opinion that it’s not advisable to take responsibility for the land, the council could still do it. His proposal was defeated by 12 votes to five, and afterwards Mr. Burns expressed disappointment that SDLP councillors did not support him.

He added: “The advice from our legal team said adoption of this ground was legal. The Grange residents have been forced into a management arrangement that is totally unfair and been saddled with huge bills for little to no level of service. These people are ratepayers and deserve all the help that council can give them.”

Councillor Colin McGrath, the leader of the council’s SDLP members, said if the local authority agreed to maintain the land it could mean that in future developers would not finish off developments “as the local council would do it.”

He continued: “The advice from the council lawyer was quite clear. We could not take responsibility for the land. There are dozens of areas like this across the council area and in neighbouring Newry and Mourne.

The bottom line is that if we had agreed to do this the new council would be paying millions of pounds to mop up after developers.

If we had assumed responsibility for the land in Castlewellan it would have set a precedent.”

The Grange Cross Community Association said it is “totally devastated” at the council’s decision and that SDLP councillors did not support the proposal leaving residents “confused and very annoyed.”

The group’s chairwoman, Angela McCabe, claimed prior to last week’s meeting, SDLP politicians seemed “sympathetic” to the residents’ plight, indicating that if the council’s legal advice said the local authority could adopt the land, they would back such a move.

She continued: “If the SDLP members had voted in favour, this would have meant 51 of the 69 homeowners would have been released from the current maintenance contract they are tied in to. Maybe the SDLP will explain their actions in person to residents when they come canvasing in our development.”

“The council’s decision has left us back at square one and in an extremely vulnerable position.

Letters threatening to take residents to court, approach their mortgage providers, blacklist people and send in bailiffs in an attempt to recover money the management company feels it is owed will begin over again and our saga continues,” she added.