Report Paul Murphy
The system of “planned maintenance” of council social housing stock has been welcomed in Trim by a Fine Gael councillor. Joe Fox said the county council had an ever-increasing amount of social housing. He said he had called over the years for a property management section in the council. It saved money in the long run to keep up with maintenance work.
Independent Cllr Noel French praised the maintenance section of the council. Questions were asked about the possibility of making bathrooms in older houses more accessible for older people and in creating a faster turnaround of vacant council houses.
An official said that it was hard to manage expectations of tenants in regard to getting repairs done at their houses. People thought that when they logged a complaint with the council, it was expected that a worker would arrive in a relatively short period but as everyone knew, it was sometimes difficult to get a plumber and it takes some time to get the complaint attended to.
She also said that when vacant properties are repaired or renovated they can often lie idle for some time because the council “gets refusal after refusal after refusal” from prospective new tenants. There is now a system in operation in which a tenancy is offered before the refurbishment work is completed.
