I live on a  little estate of ten houses and I have written about it with much tenderness in a previous blog Small Town Ireland on 7 January 2010.  It was the subject of Planning Approval given by Roscommon County Council, hereinafter called RCC, in June 1999, subject to 17 conditions, some of which were of a general nature, but the following need highlighting:-

No  2  All works on the layout and construction of water mains, sewers, footpaths and roads shall be strictly in accordance with the standards recommended by An Foras Forbartha in its publication Recommendations for Site Development Works for Housing Areas.

No  5  No dwelling house shall be occupied until all services have been provided.  In particular the developer shall have completed the following to the satisfaction of the Planning Authority.

a)  All sanitary services

b)  ESB and Telecom Eireann services

c)  Public Lighting

d)  Comprehensive Landscaping Plan

No  7  The area proposed as public open space shall be soiled, seeded and planted in accordance with a detailed landscaping scheme to be submitted to the Planning Authority and agreed in writing prior to commencement of development works.

No  8  Connection to the public sewerage system, mains water supply system and means of disposal of surface water shall be made to the satisfaction of the Planning Authority.

No  14  The developer must organize a bond with a bank or insurance company or pay a cash deposit in the sum of £31,000 or €39,361.88 to secure the provision and maintenance, until taken in charge by RCC, of the roads, footpaths and other services.

The works were commenced in July 1999.  Elmstar Ltd was the developer and builder, The Architect was Colin Bell and the Engineer responsible for foundations and drainage was Michael Archer.  Elmstar’s solicitors were Messrs O’Dowd, Lister, Forde & Co.  The properties came on the market in January 2001 when all works were supposed to have been completed to the satisfaction of the Planning Authority.  Two local solicitors each bought a property,  Mr C. Callan and Mr M. O’Dowd.

On 30 July 2002, 18 months after the works were supposed to have been completed, RCC wrote to O’Dowd, Lister, Forde & Co to say that the bond or deposit mentioned in section 14 of the planning conditions, had not been paid and that Elmstar were in breach of planning and that the matter would have to be addressed within ten days.  To my knowledge this bond or deposit remains unpaid and RCC refuse to take charge of the estate.  We are now nine years into this saga and worst of all RCC have allowed Elmstar amongst other contracts to build 94 houses at Warren or Drum and 39 houses at Silveroe, on the Frenchpark Road where they were recently in dispute over drainage problems and Elmstar’s non compliance.

Elmstars solicitors wrote to RCC in the summer of 2004 requesting that RCC took charge of the estate.  RCC wrote back on 17 September 2004 refusing their request because of various faults on:-

WATER MAIN.

The water main services to the houses because they had been laid at a shallow depth tended to freeze up in cold weather. (In this recent spell of cold weather six of the ten houses had no water for over two weeks).  RCC required them to be relaid to a minimum depth of 450mm.  (Even this is not good enough in severe weather, Building Regulations state 750mm minimum depth).

FOUL SEWER NETWORK

There were a number of complaints and faults in the system, the main ones being that there was not the correct amount of manholes compared to the planning drawings and the depths of sewer were up about 450 mm from that agreed at planning.  This led to lack of concrete protection on top of the pipes which is obviously the cause of the sewer collapsing in places, shown up on a CCTV survey of the system.  Also the pipes had not been laid to line and level  causing failure and deformation.

STORM SEWER NETWORK

Again plenty of faults amongst which were that the planning conditions allowed for a dual system of sewers but at No 2 the storm water is fed into the foul sewer.  The number of manholes are greatly reduced (the planning drawing shows 18 manholes on the two systems, I could only find nine when I checked this morning).  There was evidence of damage to the sewer because of decreased depths as the foul system above.  The pipeline shoul be constructed of 225mm pipes not the 150mm pipes used.  The pipes have not been laid to line and level and there is a 45 degree bend on one line which the survey camera could not navigate round.

On the 28 October 2004, four and half years after the properties came to market, RCC again wrote to Elmstar’s solicitors wanting As Constructed drawings for the ESB layout, the road gulley layout (there was only seven gullies on site instead of the original 13). The surface water sewer  to be replaced with pipes of correct diameter.  The water main needed more fire hydrants and the turning circles (2 No) were to small and had to be increased to 8m diameter.  They also stressed that the onus of certification of compliance rests with the developer and the Site Engineer (presumably Mr Michael Archer.

So that was in 2004 and nothing seems to have happened since then, other than that Mr O’Dowd has moved out along with two others and two new people moved in as well as the sucker that I undoubtedly am.

We were told when buying our house in April 2006 that in Section 7 of our Special Conditions of Sale,  condition No 14 of the Planning Permission was in non-compliance.  We were not told why or even what it was and both solicitors to the sale Callan & Co and Henry Wynne & Co both passed the can to ourselves to ascertain the problem which seemed strange as Mr Christopher Callan owned one of the houses in question.  We thought that as he was living there the problem cannot be great and what do you employ solicitors for anyway?

It is now nine years since these properties hit the market and RCC still refuse to take them over and it is obvious Mr Gallagher of Elmstar will not put right what he is contractually bound to.  To my mind both parties have been equally negligent and it appears that Mr Archer should also take some share of the blame.  I wonder now what is our legal position if say the foul sewer collapses altogether and we have no drainage system.  This, although hypothetical, situation must pour a heap of responsibility on RCC who at the end of the day have a Duty of Care to ensure the public health of all its citizens and whose behaviour in this matter has been truly abysmal.

Another saga in the making.  I will keep everybody informed as this problem must be happening everywhere with the recent downturn in fortunes of the bastard sons of the Celtic Tiger.

At this moment I have to say I am scared, it is 3.00am on a very sub-zero morning, the world around me sleeps but I cannot.  I am torn in two with exasperation at the way small town Ireland works.  I will explain, although I am scared, because a month ago I asked a question of small town Ireland, an innocent question I thought and got bitten so severely it spoilt my Christmas.  So I will tread carefully and try to put my puerile thoughts in front of you without hopefully upsetting half the population.

There is a small estate of less than a dozen houses in the west of Ireland, set out in crescent formation, possibly designed by that ally of friend and foe alike, Mr Osama bin Laden.  All houses have the full works, underfloor central heating, double glazing, four or five bedrooms, garages, manicured lawns, architecturally designed landscaped gardens and knocking out at around €400,000 when I came round the corner, four years ago.  Everything is too ordered, too manufactured, nature has not been allowed to flourish but it is, all the same, the full Monty.  If there was one small word to sum up the estate it would be twee, it certainly lacks a little of that inner suburban chaos that I know and love, but twee would be wrong because of the dark secrets it holds.

It is peopled by all ranks of the upper social scale, with the lowly out of work writer at one end, through small buisness owners, professionals, mental health consultants, banking gurus, to our leader, a purveyor of justice, a man who knows right from wrong, but we are all bound up in small town Ireland and we are all scared to speak our mind.

The dark secret or problem is the developer and builder of the estate and the Local Authority, the two fine arbiters of fair play in this neck of the woods.  This particular problem amongst other problems is that every time the weather drops below freezing, the individual house water supply pipes freeze up leaving certain houses with no water.  The house next to the one I am sitting in has been frozen up for a week and this is the fourth time in six years this burden has been levied on this family.  No water!  This is not the Nubian desert, this is Ireland and the West to boot, there is water everywhere, but it aint coming out of the taps. Now, with this sustained spell of freezing weather there are only about 40% of the houses with a properly working plumbing system and, so I am told, it takes four days after the thaw for the underground pipes to feel the benefit which means these houses could be without water for well over two weeks.  A health and safety problem waiting to unfurl.

This malfunction is entirely due to the fact that the developer when building the houses ten years ago did not abide by good building practice and must have laid the water mains on the ground and laid the tarmacadam finish over the top, instead of digging trenches and laying the pipes within.  Some of the stop taps are no more than 150 to 250mm deep.  We  are perhaps lucky in that this house was built with the developer’s brother in mind and the incoming water main certainly at the stop tap is about 450mm deep which makes it temporarily acceptable.  A quick check on good building practice via my Mitchell’s Advanced Building Construction 1963 Revised Edition, on page 180 tells me that all water mains should be at a “minimum of 2’6” depth” or to put it into the modern idiom 750mm deep.

So there we are 60% of us are in the Sahara, the builder has cocked up, it is ten years since the houses were built.  The Local Authority have put in the street lighting system and they take care of our sewage through the pumping station beyond and they manage our domestic waste.  Let us go to the council who will soon sort out this shoddy mess.

Problem!  Although it is ten years since the houses went on the market, the Local Authority have still not legally adopted the estate despite providing all the aforesaid services.  You would think that adoption was admitted by these actions alone without considering the time frame, but they are adamant and in the meanwhile poor Joe suffers.

It seems that when the builder commenced the scheme, he had to put down a deposit or initiate a legal bond to ensure proper completion of the works to the satisfaction of the Local Authority.  To ensure that workmanship is kept to a high standard, a local firm of Engineers or Architects are employed to regularly inspect the works.  This safe guard seems to have failed along with the builder’s contractual responsibilities in this case, because on completion the Authority examined the works, considered themselves unhappy with certain aspects and produced a snag list for the builder to correct.  Unfortunately the list of defects issued by the council proved to be too onerous for the builder, who has ignored his duties in the matter and obviously after ten years allowed the council to retain the deposit or call in the bond.  This snag list whatever it contains is still in existence, the builder cannot afford to put right the defects, the council will not sign off.  Stalemate– ten years of stalemate whilst the builder has been allowed to continue building houses and properties for the council and the population at large.  It would not happen anywhere in Europe.  In the meantime, we, the lowly customer, the bottom of the heap, is once more kicked up the arse and told to shut up by small town Ireland.  Our poor in-house legal eagle has to take his burgeoning family a few miles down the road to bathe and attend to matters of personal privacy denied by this philosophy,  our financial guru cannot wait to get to work so that he can wallow in 21st century luxury and our mental health consultant is threatening on sucking the Boyle River dry to service his growing hydrological need.

So where do we go to end this stalemate, our legal team have studied the case and decided that there is no redress in this matter.  This is small town Ireland and it would not be right to damage the sphincter of the man who has just hung you out to dry, and nobody can put pressure on the Local Authority because small town Ireland is about not putting pressure on anybody and letting the status quo and malfeasance wash all round us.

However there is one ray of hope.  The council have a legal obligation, Duty of Care, as they call it nowadays, to ensure the Health and Safety of its population, to deny we twees this basic right and this right was confirmed in 19th century legislation is only what you would expect from our benign governing fathers, just like we would expect our Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church to protect our innocent children.  The fact that there is no water supply to a property is surely a health risk.  Surely our local attorney must know some pettifogger in say New Zealand, at least someone far enough away to put this situation to rights before the long scrawny arm of small town Ireland circumnavigates the world to punch him or her in the face.

But why should I care, I have got water on tap.  I am all right Jack thank you very much.