€3m Limerick housing development delayed until January

LIMERICK City and County Council has said the refurbishment of the Hyde Road flats will be complete by the end of this year.

The authority added that the first residents in the long-closed apartment complex will move in March next year, with allocation of these flats starting in January.

The disclosure, from Seamus Hanrahan, senior architecht in the social directorate at City Hall, followed a question by Sinn Fein’s City East councillor Séighin Ó Ceallaigh.

He has criticised what he claims is a “third delay” on the project, which is being carried out jointly by the council and the voluntary housing group Cluid.

He said: “It's frustrating for all of the people currently in emergency accommodation and those who have been waiting countless years to be housed. I first highlighted the delays two years ago when work hadn't commenced on the site, this development was originally meant to be finished this time last year."

Earlier in the year, Cllr O' Ceallaigh put a question to council officials on he same subject, and was advised residents would be in place at Christmas.

“Now we have found out that families will be spending Christmas in hotels and bed and breakfasts as the units won't be allocated until next year,” he said, “It is simply not good enough that in the middle of a housing crisis we are seeing delays such as this.”

The €3m development will see 20 new apartments built on the Hyde Road.

Cllr Frankie Daly said while the delay to their completion is frustrating, it is better than having abject flats in the city.

“I’d be a glass half-full kind of a person. It takes time to get things right. We have seen before when we brushed things aside in the past, they went pear shaped. If it takes an extra few weeks, then so be it,” he said.

Separately, Cllr O’Ceallaigh was also told by Mr Hanrahan that the completion date of the Churchfield site in Southill is expected to be completed by March, with the allocation of tenancies kicking off the same month.