Farrankelly Being Left High & Damp…?

Farrankelly yesterday. Just after 2pm.

ising damp, lack of insulation plus leaking windows, doors and roofs have been a long-running problem for the residents of the Farrankelly estate.

And it would appear that Wicklow County Council won’t be fixing many of these issues in the foreseeable, despite the calls for action going on for years.

Raised at a recent Greystones Municipal District meeting by councillor Lourda Scott, engineers Sean Keane and Thomas Campbell from the WCC’s Housing Section pointed out that contractors were currently repairing the roofs. When it came to the rest of the problems at Farrankelly though, the duo stated that the budget for the likes of windows and doors “hasn’t been there for 10 years” in the county.

District manager, Michael Nicholson, backed this up, stating that the money for new windows and doors in Farrankelly had been sought, but it simply didn’t exist.

Advising Cllr Scott to make a list of the other issues and the Council would then work through them “with the budget that they have“, Nicholson added that for sundry other issues, it was up to the tenant to repair them themselves.

Cllr Tom Fortune said a special case had to be made for Farrankelly, given that the estate has suffered such issues from the outset.

Residents had also complained that the access ramp outside the estate was not the correct gradient for wheelchairs, Greystones District Engineer Ruairi O’Hanlon said that it had recently been checked and was found to be fully compliant with accessibility guidelines.

As to the other ongoing issues at Farrankelly, Mr Nicholson pointed out that the Greystones estate is not the only one in the county with issues.

“It’s not good enough, I know,” he said, “but, without money, we can’t do anything…”