Council accused of 'light touch' on anti-social behaviour

Westmeath County Council has been accused of adopting a “light touch” approach when it comes to addressing social housing occupants who engage in anti-social behaviour.

Speaking at the June council meeting, the cathaoirleach, Cllr Aengus O’Rourke, said that when it comes to enforcement and tackling anti-social behaviour, he thinks the council is “very light touch”.

“Weekly I have instances of people where it is a lot worse that anti-social behaviour. I can cite many examples of people who have been convicted, who have had charges brought against them, who are living in homes, subsidised by our local authority, who are still in those homes.

Cllr Denis Leonard said that “we need to get enforcement right”.

“We need to have the right amount of enforcement officers, no matter what it is for. Anyone breaking the law in terms of litter or criminal damage or negligent damage, whatever it happens to be.

“You can’t have that when the [vacant housing] turnaround times are as great as they are. The cost of raw materials is going through the roof. It is hard to get a house turned around in any appropriate time when they are wrecked by a small percentage of people.

“We have lists in this country for tax non-compliance. We have lists for people who can’t travel out of the country because of some misdemeanour, but we don’t seem to keep track of people who wreck houses in different counties in different parts of the country.

“I know I am talking about a small percentage but if those five or 10 or 20 houses, which are precious at the moment, if they can’t be turned around in time then we are in trouble,” he said.

Director of services Mark Keaveney expressed the view that the council are “very strong” when it comes to tackling anti-social behaviour by its tenants. “We take action straight away. I know there can be frustrations that the process doesn’t move as quickly as we would like, but we have to go through a legal process in all cases.

“... We meet regularly with gardaí in terms of anti-social behaviour in council estates. I should be clear as well that anti-social behaviour isn’t restricted to council estates, council houses or council tenants.

“There is no light touch. It is very intensive in my opinion,” he said.