Dun Laoghaire residents have signed a petition to have a Dunnes Stores-owned building in the middle of the town added to the Derelict Registry List.
The "complete eyesore" of a building, on Upper Georges Street, has been left vacant and unused for almost 20 years, said local councillor Lorraine Hall. She added that Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council sent a surveyor who determined that Dunnes Stores is “doing just about enough to keep it off the Derelict Sites Register”.
Cllr Hall told Dublin Live: “The buildings are in such a terrible condition that the council had to pay to put up hoarding on the front with murals to try and distract from the dirty, neglected, ugly space of the building.”
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She added: “I would argue this building is in a very poor state. If you look back at the building, there are many windows that have been blocked up and you can't actually [see through], I think that's a clear sign of dereliction when your windows are blocked up.”
There’s a very prominently placed ‘to let’ sign, the Fine Gael councillor said, but there’s never been “any meaningful attempt” to let these properties, leaving the building to “continue to fall into a worse state of disrepair and damage”. There have been successive planning applications from Dunnes Stores over the years which the council approved, none of which has been acted upon.
Last week, Cllr Hall submitted a motion to add the vacant building to the Derelict Registry List but the council refused on the basis it doesn’t consider the building to be derelict. She was informed the council has written to Dunnes Stores twice late last year but didn't receive a response to their correspondence. There is a procedure for when a stakeholder has not replied but only if the building is already in the Derelict Register.
While discussions with the council are still ongoing, Cllr Hall has submitted a petition which over 1,000 people have signed. She said: “[This] is a clear indication of how the local community feel about it. They're really upset that we have this very large vacant unused block in the centre of our town.”
Cllr Hall added: “If a building has been vacant and unused for 10 years, the council should have power to CPO it. That’s my personal view, that’s not in law at the moment but I will be writing to the Minister to consider that.”
She explained that the second and third floors would be ideal homes for people to rent or to buy, and the ground floor is perfect for commercial retail.
While there are cases where the council has listed other properties as derelict recently, the Fine Gael councillor thinks in this case they don’t feel that the legislation is sufficient since Dunnes Stores is “doing just about enough to keep it off the Derelict Sites Register”, which makes it very difficult for the council. She also said that legislation needs to be strengthened to deal with the vacant and unoccupied buildings and this is a view that the council shares with her.
A spokesperson for Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council told Dublin Live: “The Dunnes Stores owned buildings in Dun Laoghaire are not considered to come within the scope of the Derelict Sites Act, 1990, and no recommendation has been made in relation to initiating action under the Act. Any change in legislation is the responsibility of Central Government.”
Dublin Live has contacted Dunnes Stores for comment.
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