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A COUNCILLOR IN Bray says boarded up council houses in the area are becoming magnets for antisocial behaviour and dumping grounds for syringes and other drug paraphernalia.
Sinn Féin Councillor John Brady found a large volume of used syringes and other drug related items at a property that has been boarded up by the council for over 4 months.
Syringes
“I had been contacted by a number of very concerned locals in relation to a large stash of used syringes and other drug paraphernalia in the back garden of a council property that has been boarded up by the council now for over four months,” he said.
“This is totally unacceptable on a number of fronts, firstly that the house is being used as a drug den and that these syringes are being discarded in a highly built up residential area where large numbers of children are playing,” said Brady.
“Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident, but the scale of it exceeds previous syringe finds. Myself and a local resident immediately cleaned up the syringes using specialist equipment. The material was put in a sealed container and handed into Bray Garda station for disposal. In total over 30 syringes were discovered along with other drug materials,” he said.
At risk
Following Brady’s discovery of the syringes, Christine Flood, Bray Town Council clerk said while Councillor Brady’s actions in collecting up used syringes was “well intentioned… he put himself and the member of the public assisting him, in danger of a needle stick injury”.
She appealed to those who use syringes to dispose of them in a responsible manner, stating that “users will be aware of the specialist facilities in Bray for the disposal of these items” adding that Bray Town Council have personnel who have had training and specialist equipment dealing with such situations.
She said if a member of the public sees such drug paraphernalia in a public place they should report it to the council.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Brady said it is a relatively new house where the drugs were found and someone should be living in it. He said that he did not want to “shine a bad light on the town” adding that incidents like this with boarded up houses are an issue for towns and cities up and down the country.
Brady added that it is “scandalous” that when council houses are handed back they are left lying vacant for months when he said there is a housing crisis going on.
Boarded up
“There is too much red tape. Part of the delay is from the Department of the Environment. When a house becomes vacant it comes back into the council’s possession. However, often times work has to be carried out on the house to bring a house up to modern housing and energy standards, and to do this, an application has to be made to the department. Houses can remain boarded up for up to 18 months while the application assesses whether work needs to be carried out,” said Brady.
Bray Town Council responded, stating that there are currently six boarded up houses in the town which are in “varying stages of the allocation process”. The council said in a statement that the council are working on a further 11 houses. This figure includes 8 houses in the Oldcourt Estate which are being upgraded as part of the Bray Town Council Energy Efficiency works.
The council added:
The housing stock in Bray is in excess of 1,200 houses. The number of boarded up houses represents a tiny fraction of that number. We generally re-let vacant houses in a matter of weeks.Sometimes a housing applicant might turn down an offer of a particular house, this means that we have to go through the allocation process a second or third time.
In some cases where refurbishment works are required, we have to go through a procurement process and seek the approval of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, this can take months depending on the nature of the works.
The Department of the Environment said that It is up to each local authority to manage its own housing stock.
“When a local authority dwelling becomes vacant the Council will secure the dwelling by boarding it up to protect it from anti-social behaviour. It is up to the local authority concerned to bring that house back up to living standard – if needs be,” said the department.
They added that if there is a case that there are a lot of units outside of the councils budget they may approach the department for additional funding.
They pointed out there is an additional fund of €15 million being put towards improving boarded up housing stock and long-term vacant units.
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Customers can already self exclude and need to be 18 to enter a betting shop. A total BAN on the ” virtual product” including all racing ( horses, cars, dogs, bikes, football) and numbers generated games like the bingo and roulette needs to introduced. Most of the major shops in this country are making their huge profit in theses areas of gambling. As a former employee of 15 years ive seen with my own eyes the problems people have with it.
@andrew sutton: much of what you say is true.I do believe that the consultation of people who were in the industry be seriously considered.I somehow doubt that they will consider such consultation feasible.Legislation appears for discussion regularly in the dail that seems to be the product of virtual research,take the HSE as an example…..Let’s ask a lot of administrative people the best way to utilise nurses and junior doctors. We all know how that works out.
You are 100% right Andrew, plus with the self exclude all the responsability is put on the customer and the bookies take none. They pray on the lower class areas, look at the amount of bookies in and around the Henary street area compard to Graffton street. Paddy Power have 8 shop’s within an half mile of the spike .
Why is the national lottery excluded? They made it even more of a mugs game by upping prices and increasing the number of balls this year. Scratch cards need to be included
Absolutely dave , also ” amusement ” arcades , the amount of under 25s losing their proverbials in these places is nauseating .
As a person who likes a bet every couple of weeks think it would be a good idea to get rid of online gambling with credit/visa cards.Let people top up in the betting shops with their customer cards and then use that to log on and bet online if they wish.All they can then bet is whats on their account.We all think alot more about what we spend when we see the money in our hands before its passed over the counter.Far to easy to bet online as it almost doesn’t feel like real money if that makes sense.
Maybe even a national betting card with a limit. You put in you’re code and once you have gone over you’re monthly amount you cant gamble any more.
@Jim: Sounds like a thoroughly Irish solution, we should do the same with alcohol, cigarettes, fast food, luxury goods. Don’t mind that thousands of people do it every day without a problem. Lets screw everyone because of the few that take it too far.
Spot on John
To be fair John, If you’re betting every day then it’s safe to say it is a problem.And it’s more than a few that take it too far.Its too easy to conceal a gambling addiction whereas with drink, cigarettes and drugs the signs are generally obvious.
All it takes is one look at the clientele who attend the bookies on a regular basis to know it’s a losers game. The wealth of Paddy Powers alone should get the message through.
you are a moron if you are judging people by their looks and how regular they attend a bookmakers. having worked in many some years ago and known the clientele personally i can verify there is a wide array of people who frequent these eatablishments.
@Scundered: interesting comment.You should read the article above,it is close to the subject you seem to be commenting on.
That is the point of the comments section….Read article and then express a view.
As an aside ,I doubt very much if you are a stranger to a bookies.There is more than a little latent bitterness in your ‘comment’.
As the saying goes ‘The house always wins.’ If they didn’t, as you rightly point out they wouldn’t be in business long.
The government appears to be dragging out this much needed legislation. Self exclusion has been around for quite a while,5 years or so.Some of the practices employed by the online companies are criminal,almost.They will take a lot of study and I personally do not feel this government is committed to the completion of this legislation in any reasonable time frame. It is a cash cow and tax revenue will always trump social needs regardless of the damage to members of society.
Over 10 years ago, a Fine Gael senator attempted to introduce a Private Members Bill that would have closed off the availability of the Tote at racecourses and dog tracks to under 18′s.
The Bill was supported by Gamblers Anonymous but the Fianna Fáil led Government opposed it.
The same Senator became Leader of the House in the previous administration but chose not to prevail on the Cabinet to change the law.
Under age gambling is illegal in bookies shops and also National Lottery products yet every day youngsters attending horse and dog meetings are entitled to bet courtesy of the State-sanctioned Tote cartel. Go figure.
@Vincent Jennings: In fairness if under 18s are placing bets at race tracks etc its not upto the government to stop them. Parents have to take some responsibility here.
Paddy power will let u bet and bet but as soon as you try to withdraw money it then closes you’re account and then looks for I’d. It should be id first
In 1967 when I was a kid, I placed a bet for my Granny in the local bookies on the Grand National.
It didn’t turn me into a gambler, in fact I don’t think I have ever been into a bookies since.
The Gambling Control Bill in it’s present state is not ready to legislate on .
have your say