Small number of Council tenants "causing havoc," meeting told
Everything from rats to rubbish featured in a discussion about widespread anti-social behaviour among what was described as “a very small minority” of local authority tenants at the January meeting of Athlone Municipal District this week.
Cllr John Dolan tabled a motion calling on Westmeath County Council to perform regular inspections on all council tenants to ensure they are complying with the rules of the Tenants Handbook, and he claimed that while 95% of local authority tenants are excellent “the other 5% are creating hell for everybody.”
Cllr Dolan told his colleagues that he got a phonecall over Christmas from a certain housing estate in Athlone where a lot of anti-social behaviour has been going on for years, and nothing has been done about it.
“There is one house in particular where the rubbish has been allowed to pile up outside and the rats are running into the next-door neighbour's house and they are very good tenants... it's a disgraceful state of affairs” he said.
“We are facilitating anti-social behaviour and drug dealing in some houses, and then there is the rubbish,” said Cllr Dolan. “When was the last time any tenant in Athlone was asked to produce bin certs to prove they are complying with the law on waste disposal?”
Cllr Dolan said a small minority of tenants are “creating havoc” and other people on housing estates are “too afraid to speak out, so we have to be their voice” and he added that if tenants do not respect the property they are given “it should be taken back off them and given to someone who will respect it.”
The Fine Gael Councillor proposed that the Director of Housing with Westmeath County Council be asked to attend the next meeting of Athlone Municipal District of Westmeath County Council to address the concerns of members about anti-social behaviour among a small cohort of tenants.
In the written response which was provided to Cllr Dolan's motion, he was told that Westmeath County Council has responsibility for in excess of 1,900 local authority houses, and also has over 870 units available to it under the RAS/Leasing Scheme.
The council has only two dedicated Housing Liaison Officers (HLO) whose job is to provide support and back-up to almost 2,800 tenancies. As part of their duties they deal with anti-social behaviour, estate management, meetings with Residents Associations, and the council works towards “engendering a self-help attitude among tenants and residents associations in the upkeep of their dwellings and estates.”
The response further stated that “a minority of tenants fail to comply with their obligations under their tenancy agreement and, where necessary, notices are issued to tenants reminding them of their obligations.”
Cllr Aengus O'Rourke said nobody expected council staff to inspect “almost 3,000 houses” but he said it surely was possible to carry out more “spot checks” in cases where the council are well aware that tenants are clearly and blatantly abusing their tenancy.
Director of Services Barry Kehoe said he would issue an invitation to the Council's Director of Housing to attend the February meeting of the Municipal District.