Council working with AHB on anti-social behaviour at Halliday Mills in Dundalk

Louth County Council says it is working with Co-operative Housing Ireland (CHI), the Approved Housing Body (AHB) that owns and manages Halliday Mills in Dundalk, to deal with anti-social behaviour that is taking place at the social housing development at Quay Street.

A number of councillors raised the matter at the Dundalk Municipal District October meeting. Cllr Sean Kelly told the meeting that ongoing issues had been raised "quite a lot" at the recent Joint Policing Committee (JPC) meeting, and asked if there had been any requests from tenants to the council directly in relation to it, as well as asking what communications Louth County Council has had with the AHB on the issues.

Cllr Maeve Yore said that she was requesting that the AHB, Louth County Council and elected representatives, staff, residents and An Garda Síochána convene meeting to help formulate a strategy to improve procedures in addressing anti-social behaviour. Cllr Yore said that tenants "feel ignored and abandoned by stakeholders", and "taxpayers are fed up of picking up the tab for the minority of tenants who are causing chaos and are housed in the wrong locations".

The Dundalk councillor told the meeting that at Halliday Mills, lifts are consistently broken, key fobs are not working, people are lying on hallways, doors are being left open, and blood and drug paraphernalia are on the walls and walkways. "It's not acceptable", she added, "there's 45 anti-social behaviour cases in Louth, which is a huge increase in my opinion and action is needed".

In response, Senior Executive Officer in the Housing Section, Mr John Lawrence, said that the Council is "in constant conversation with Co-operative Housing Ireland" and that it is working with the AHB to resolve the issues. Mr Lawrence told the meeting, "I have to clarify and be very clear – Halliday's Mills is owned, managed and run by CHI" and that Louth County Council's role is to provide the residents. The Council's intention, he said, was to assist CHI to "clean up the place" so that it does not become a "no go area".

Mr Lawrence added that there is a very high housing demand, particularly in the Dundalk area for one bedroom units, with around 900 applications for a one-bed home, and that the Council doesn't get a lot of one-bed properties. He said that they will be "looking very carefully at allocations into Halliday Mills into the future", are are working proactively with CHI.

Cllr Conor Keelan put forward the suggestion to find a way to break down problems that are happening in estates to give more assurance to residents that they're not going to feel trapped there, and to find a way of dealing with problem tenants earlier on.

Cllr Kelly asked if the Council was invited to attend a meeting that was taking place with CHI and Mr Lawrence replied to say his attendance wouldn't serve any purpose. Cllr Kelly commented that Halliday Mills was now run by CHI but "we are the ones who nominated the people" to the homes in the first instance and "now it seems like we are washing our hands of it and its not our problem any longer."

Mr Lawrence replied to say that it was unfair to day that and that there has been a number of tenancy terminations in Halliday Mills and that when this happens those people will arrive back to Louth County Council, and will probably become part of its homeless figures. Mr Lawrence further added that there is a concerted effort to ensure that those that are causing trouble will be dealt with by CHI.

Cllr Yore spoke again on the matter, saying that "anybody that abuses the system and crucifies people that are living next to them and around them, in my opinion, we shouldn't be giving them houses, they should paddle their own canoes." She further added, "we need action on this" and that "we as elected reps have to represent the people that are wanting and willing and pay their rent and abode by the rules."

Cllr Kevin Meenan told the meeting that over the past number of months he has been inundated with calls in relation to Halliday Mills at that "it is quite depressing, to be honest". He said that "there's some great people in there" and that there are some people who are unsuitable for housing there. He added that to put that mix of people in Halliday Mills was probably well intentioned at the start "but it's not worked out and we have to look at that."