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Naas residents getting a 'sinking feeling' as their property subsides
NAAS, 30 July 1999: by Trish Whelan & Brian Byrne. What may have been an architectural misjudgment by Naas UDC over 30 years ago is coming home to roost. And if the authority doesn't take responsibility for it, several homeowners may have to take to the courts.
Cracks in the walls of houses in St Martin's Avenue (above) and ominous recent subsidence in gardens and the roadway indicate the possibility of an imminent catastrophe, with some people fearing that houses could collapse into what were once underground cells in Naas Gaol.
"All we have in this estate are our homes, and now these are worth nothing," tenant purchaser Moira Heffernan says, while her husband Eamon points out cracks in their garage wall which allow them to see through to their neighbour's garden. Moira also showed fresh cracks in her bathroom ceiling.
"We had to get a builder in last year to patch up the cracks because the UDC wouldn't do anything for us," Moira says. "But now more are appearing, and there's a part of the roof that lets in the damp no matter what we do with it." She also showed with a kitchen knife how window frames are coming adrift from the fabric of the house, and pointed out where the sewerage system had to be rebuilt some years ago after it 'disappeared' overnight.
"I'm blue in the face calling to Naas UDC," Moira says. "I've asked everybody for help," she said. "Cllr Bracken did her best for me, but wasn't given much support." She also noted that when she filled in the forms to buy the house in the mid-seventies she wrote down that there were structural faults, but an engineer sent by the council said they were just 'settling cracks'. "I was too naive then to get my own engineer in to survey the house ... you didn't do things like that in those days."
In May of last year, Naas Town Clerk Declan Kirrane wrote to the Heffernans advising them that when they began to purchase their house in 1975 there 'was no record of a report of severe structural faults' from them. "There were, however, standard pre-purchase repairs carried out. In view of the fact that you are currently purchasing this house, it is not the responsibility of Naas UDC to carry out repairs." In an effort several years ago to have something done, Moira claims she contacted an official of the UDC, but got only the response 'take me to court, it will only cost you £6,000'.
Across the road in Paddy and Maeve Dunne's home, the concrete runway in front of the house is falling rapidly into some void underneath (left), and Maeve is seriously concerned about the prospect of a visitor falling over on the disturbed concrete. "The insurance company tell me we wouldn't be covered if anything happened, and the only thing I can think of doing is putting some garden furniture over the area so that they can't walk over it. Everyone who calls to my house uses the back way and they have to cross over this sinking area."
She also recalled how a neighbour jumped over his garden wall some years ago and found himself up to his neck in a hole that suddenly appeared. Paddy, meantime, told how he filled in a hole that appeared at the gable end of the house, but 'the cement bubbled up and cracked'. From the subsiding area, a crack more than 30 feet long has appeared and stretches up to their back garden gate.
Both families have been in their homes since they were built in the late 60s, and when a tenant purchase scheme was introduced in the mid-70s they signed up to buy their properties from the UDC.
An indication that somebody might have suspected there could be a problem is that the Dunnes's home and that of their next door neighbour were built further back from the road than other houses in the same part of the estate. Opposite them, subsidence in the road in the middle of the estate has been patched by the council, but the area is clearly sinking again.
At the most recent meeting of Naas UDC, Cllr Evelyn Bracken raised the subject of the householders' plight. "I think we have got to ask the minister to do something for these people," she said. "No insurance is going to cover them." Town manager Terry O Niadh said that as the houses concerned were privately owned, the council could do nothing about the situation. He suggested that Cllr Bracken put down a notice of motion asking the minister for the environment to do something about the matter.
Cllr Charlie Byrne told KNN that there are up to 20 former ‘condemned cells’ under the estate. He recalls that his father used ‘to grow mushrooms in them’ before the last remains of the gaol were demolished to make way for the St Martin’s Avenue project.
COUNTY HALL, 29 July 1999: by Trish Whelan. A total of 80 sites throughout County Kildare have been identified as generally suitable for future landfill facilities; nine of which are to be evaluated in more detail, according to county engineer Jimmy Lynch. The nine will then be whittled down to three ‘green’ sites. Mr Lynch said the vast majority of the county is unsuitable for landfill facilities.
Mr Lynch said a consultant’s report will include a range of other things commonly used to identify suitable facilities. “The council will be given a detailed report which I expect to be available within a month. Like all other local authorities we will be embarking on a residual landfill,” he advised. This was in response to direct queries from councillors Sean O Fearghail and Catherine Murphy regarding the exact criteria used to decide whether an area is deemed suitable or not.
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MONASTEREVIN, 29 July 1999: by Brian Byrne. A new book of poetry and commentary launched in Monasterevin this week represents a whole new concept in poetry publishing, according to Newbridge-based poet Desmond Egan. My Irish Poetry/Meine Geschichte der irischen Dichtung is a bilingual collection of Irish poems, some of them the author’s own, around each of which a commentary is written.
County manager Niall Bradley told councillors this week that the whole question of waste management is one of the main problems facing Kildare and other local authorities. He was commenting on the council’s Draft Waste Management Plan which is currently on public display prior to being returned to the full council for discussion.
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CELBRIDGE, 28 July 1999: by Brian Byrne. Undergrounding of ESB wires in Celbridge must be part of the final plans for the Celbridge Streetscape Scheme, officials of Kildare County Council have been told following the most recent meeting of the Celbridge Area Committee. The undergrounding cost will be almost £156,000, of which the council must pay £77,792.
Cllr Anthony Lawlor says the road is too narrow to accommodate the number of trucks travelling to and from the facility each day and he has asked the council to bring the road to a standard acceptable to residents of the area before it starts dumping its own waste at the controversial facility, which he says was ‘foisted’ on County Kildare to take Dublin‘s rubbish. He also noted that several cars had gone off the road at a particularly narrow bend (right) as they tried to avoid trucks.
The scheme aims to restore, consolidate and improve the buildings in small towns, and is the first time that towns with populations of less than 6,000 will be included in an urban renewal scheme. The eligable towns are Ballymore Eustace, Castledermot, Clane, Coill Dubh, Derrinturn, Kilcock, Kilcullen, Kill, Monasterevan, Prosperous, Rathangan and Sallins.
NAAS, 27 July 1999: by Trish Whelan. Mary Bhogal has been elected as the new president of Naas Chamber of Commerce. She had gained substantial experience with the organisation having served the Chamber as its Executive Director since 1995.
KILCOCK, 26 July 1999: by Brian Byrne. A thousand black balloons released from the proposed incinerator site at Kilcock on Saturday represented the threat that ‘still hangs over the community as long as the project is alive and in the planning process’.
Mr Gannon said they wanted an oral hearing because the communities of the area wanted ‘nothing done behind closed doors’. “Other people might,” he said. “But we want the matter dealt with in the most open, the most public and the most transparent way possible,” he said. “We have nothing to hide, and we want everybody to hear all the arguments.”
While here they attend class each day where lessons include reading up on Irish heroes such as Finn Mac Cumhaill and the Fianna, and translating into English, the names of Irish towns. Other tasks include hands-on experience of visits to local factories, conducting bank transactions and how to hire a car. They also enjoyed a spot of tuition in Celtic lettering and design from Elaine Leigh who was also exhibiting at Naas library.
BALLYMORE, 26 July 1999: by Brian Byrne & Trish Whelan. The proposal to build 416 houses on a 62.5-acre site in Ballymore represented a density ‘too high’ for an agricultural village, says local Fine Gael councillor Billy Hillis. He told last week’s An Bord Pleanala hearing on the Abbeydrive Developments project that he and his fellow councillors feel that any development in Ballymore Eustace ‘will not be for local people’. “Being an agricultural village, there’s no employment forecast for here,” he said. “It will end up as a transient or dormitory village, because there’s no work for more people.”
