This article is from page 12 of the 2005-11-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
PROPERTY owners across the county are being pursued under leg- islation to curb derelict buildings. Shannon Town Manager Ger Dol- lard has confirmed that owners of 15 such properties in Shannon – mostly houses – are currently being pur-
sued, as are owners in other parts of the county.
According to Mr Dollard the council’s main aim is to bring these properties out of dereliction.
This could be partly achieved by applying a levy of three per cent of the market value, payable by the owner, onto such properties.
“It was never meant to be a rev- enue generating thing,” he said.
Mr Dollard added that it was par- ticularly important to deal with the issue if better results were to be achieved in Tidy Towns competi- tions.
“IT wouldn’t say it 1s a crisis, but there are examples. We are serving
notices, which give people an op- portunity to do something about it.
“They will have plenty of oppor- tunity to sort it out,’ said Mr Dol- lard.
A number of Shannon ‘Town Councillors spoke out on the issue Clerks NM N else NN OTSe
Councillor Geraldine Lambert
(FF) said that, in some instances, the landlords were only interested in collecting rent and not maintaining the property.
Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said, ‘People should be aware of how se- rious it is.
“Until such time as the council takes action, it will carry on.”