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THE HEATWAVE HAS been welcomed by most this week – reading in the garden, barbecuing out the back and water fights with the other kids on the road.
But for one group of residents in Donegal, none of those things are possible because of a disgusting sewage problem that has plagued them for years.
A manhole in Hazelwood Drive and Clonleigh Park regularly overflows, leaving a stream of foul smelling sewerage which moves towards the main Lifford to Letterkenny road.
According to residents, the situation is a health hazard, especially for children who play in the estate.
One man said he had seen “condoms floating down” in areas where children play, while others are concerned about cars splashing the water up on passers-by.
Residents are also concerned that the value of the properties has been impacted by the problem.
The smell this week was described to TheJournal.ie as “horrible” by one visitor to the estate.
“The thing with the smell now is that due to the heat, it is much more noticeable,” he added.
Homeowners want Donegal County Council to step in but the local authority notes that Hazelwood is a private housing estate.
But the management company are no longer operating and the developer has left the site.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, the council said that it had taken “short term action” by desludging the wastewater tank and the associated network.
“This is a private estate and the private wastewater system is not functioning properly,” the statement said.
“It appears that residents were obliged to form and engage in the Hazelwood Drive Management Company, as a condition of sale, when properties were purchased.
“It would appear that this company is not actively functioning, with the result that the management of the treatment plant has been neglected, the system was not maintained and the ESB appears to have been cut off as no one was paying the bills. It also appears that the developing company has gone into receivership.”
However, a separate section within council does have a remit to deal with unfinished estates. That group is “actively engaged in securing the bond monies in order to carry out remedial works at the wastewater system and restarting the treatment system again”, according to the council spokesperson.
“Donegal Co. Council is working on a solution along with the relevant parties involved, (including financial institutions in control of bonds), as well as investigating national funding opportunities emerging to address legacy issues such as these.”
Local publication, Donegal Now, took some footage of the overflowing manhole.
And an August 2012 Google Streetview still shows that this problem has been ongoing for years.
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It’s great the way you pay Tax, PRSI, USC, household charge, VAT, and now the LPT, but if you were signed into a managed estate, under duress when house prices were going up €10 grand a week, you’re on your own there pal.
I do sympathise with the residents but you hit it on the nail when you mentioned “signed up into a managed estate” I doubt anyone had a gun to their heads. Sadly all to many of these estates exist around the country. I like thousands have septic tanks to manage and would be laughed at if I expected the council to clean it for me.
People had no choice as these conditions were in every contract.
on the other hand joseph, if the council inspected your septic tank and found sewage leaking from it you can bet your life that they would come down on you like a ton of bricks, ordering you to fix it immediately plus a possible fine for pollution , there not so quick to act when it’s a developer’s or even their own responsibility though are they ?
Eric I employed a surveyor & engineer during the process of purchasing my house back in 2000, you know the type of responsibility one is expected to take when purchasing a property, indeed this was a legal requirement back then. So my point being did any of the residents engage professional advice, did they investigate sewerage issues, indeed were they covered by home bond. Like priory hall I’m agast at the lack of responsibility taken by surveyors, engineers, architects & banks. Simply put, my solicitor insisted on site inspections prior to my purchase, is it the case these residents put blind folds on and signed for mortgages, besides Developers had to pay Bonds, where is this money now? Its easy to assume its the councils problem and yet not a murmur about the Esb disconnecting power (presumably for pumps) as no one was paying the bill!
as you say developers had to pay bonds, the problem was that they were allowed to ‘sign off’ on work themselves without the local authority actually checking if the work was up to standard or even done at all . i spent some time in the building industry here and believe me there were more brown envolopes passed around, than there were fines!
Glad to see their practicing safe sex in donegal :)
“Glad to see the “fine” (unnamed in the article) “receivers” are doing their job as usual, putting their victim’s lives at risk”
You know those fine “experts” who got paid millions by our government to churn out half baked corrupt/criminal “reports” during the bubble, (although this probably still goes on today)
The ones who audited bust banks and gave them a clean bill of health when they were in fact bust.
Now they are going around coffin kicking and grave dancing as they finger through the pockets of the dying victims of their folly,
fueled on taxpayer money handed out by their cronies in bust criminal Zombie Jokebanks.
The sick irony of it, eh?
If I lived there I would take a couple of buckets of it every day and pour them in the council offices. See how they like. As the auld saying goes ” ya have to fight sewage with sewage”
How old is that saying I never heard it and I heard every saying that’s going….. You made it up didn’t you.
I knew they have Sh@t roads in Donegal, but this is taking the p@ss altogether. ..
I live in a private house and this happened every month day for about 8 years. I made videos and sent pics to council as it was the main drainage issue and they never did anything. To this day my back yard is broken to pieces after I replacing it from the constant flooding. And the acidic nature of sewage means it dissolves concrete so I’m left with a mess. The council never even contacted me. I have no respect for local authorities. They will make sure a every blade of grass is in place for more affluent parts of the Limerick City but for ordinary people its a case of of we don’t care.
Are people living in private estates not forced to pay the property tax too? Wasn’t the spin for it that it would improve local services? Guess if you live in a private estate you really are paying it for nothing.
Philip Neasy that is an inspired idea and you can guarantee it will get immediate results, been going on for years, not good enough being polite about it, let the council share in your pain!
If the estate is under receivership then I believe that it is the receiver’s responsibility to fix things. All the residents should come together and get in touch with the receiver. Then use all legal ways to have the receiver to take care of this problem.
This is very unfortunate for the poor residents. However, the number of commentators on the Journal who expect cash starved local authorities or the State to step in and solve every problem is remarkable. There is a solution for the residents. Get together and contact the receiver. I have seen numerous private estates buit in Dublin where I live, or “gated communities” as they are called. I am not a fan of these developments but it is a free society and if people wish to live in them then that it their prerogative but they should not expect the rest of us to come riding to the rescue when things go wrong. It would appear the local authority are doing what they can but this is a private estate and the residents will have to solve their own problems. The local authority should offer advice and assistance, on public health grounds, to the residents to help them resolve the problems. The residents should also talk to the Property Services Regulatory Authority to see what options they have as residents as management companies are regulated by this newish State body.
Big phil hogan stopped the planning enquiry into donegal county council
Between this episode and the flooding of the hospital in letterkeñny I think its time some one were held to account
Of course I would never encourage anyone to break the law as they could be charged if this was carried out, better to stay quiet and say nothing, it will be grand…
It’s all the football special they’re drinking
Of course this sort of yhing also happens in dublin. Thomas st to dame st is regularly flooded as the drainage system is hopelessly outdated and is over 100 years old. The pipes are too small the whole street would have to be dug up and much larger capacity pipes put in. The council wont do this but they will charge you 21 century prices for a 20 century system
I always knew Donegal smelled bad ha !!!!!!
Will the sewerage systems be taken over by Irish water too? Like the water treatment plants? Or is it separate all together? Genuine question as I’m still not sure what Irish water are responsible for and what they say isn’t their responsibility.
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