11/11/2015
An open letter written by a Riverwalk Resident to Meath County Council Manager
Dear Jackie,
During 2014, we the residents of Riverwalk Court wrote to you on many occasions regarding our situation in Riverwalk Court.
We first contacted Meath County Council via Asst Chief Fire Officer Mr O Lonaigh in late 2011 and met with both Mr O Lonaigh and Building Control Mr Sweeney to be questioned as to “what we wanted them to do” and “why were they here”?
We have known since 2011 that our homes were seriously defective – all we have ever wanted from Meath Co Co was to act as the responsible regulatory local authority. We did not expect this to take 4 years.
Many of us have been forced to move out already as the pressure of living in the very place we should be able to call home eventually got to us. Many of us are paying mortgages on a home that is worthless – we cannot (and should not I might add) live there nor can we rent it out. How could I live with myself if a fire broke out in the full knowledge that serious fire safety issues exist? But then this is what Meath Co Co have expected us all to do since 2011.
Many more of us have no option but to continue living there. We have nowhere else to go. Every night we try to sleep; with the fear deep in the pit of our stomachs as we tuck our children into bed – “what if tonight a fire breaks out?”
All we did was buy a home. This is no way to live. 24-7 Riverwalk Court while trying to hold down a full time job all the while dealing with this nightmare - for a property we can’t live in through no fault of our own. The stress, the worry of not being able to provide a safe home for us, our children, is taking its toll, as it has on every resident.
Our future, security and certainty changed the minute we bought in Riverwalk Court and not one thing changed in those four years, every email, phone call, and letter seems to have fallen on deaf ears. We were vilified locally; accused of spreading rumours and lies. We have watched as Meath Co Co has granted planning over and over to the Developer/ Builder and watched in horror when your very own offices granted a change of use from a Hair Salon to a Chinese Takeaway in Riverwalk Court. In the very same place with all these fire issues!
We have requested and beseeched you to meet with us as the victims in this nightmare but our pleas fell on deaf ears it would seem
Little did I know when I started this entire process in 2009 how much it would consume me and how much of me I would lose. But I have not lost my voice and I will not go away.
The inaction of Meath Co Co from 2011 to the middle of 2015 is a damning indictment of your own leadership performance. Your own inability to reach out to the homeowners of Riverwalk Court is shameful.
We now approach 2016 and yet again you have failed to show empathy with the homeowners – this didn’t need to be public – it could have been approached privately with residents to show your support for them on a human level.
This is not about politics – this, Jackie, is about people’s lives- my life- my neighbours lives. Our safety and our dignity.
To force us to go through this for 4 years meant a loss of our dignity as we had no option but to go to the media in May 2015 – but this is not a decision we made lightly – it is not something we have taken pride in – it is heart wrenching to see our families and friends and our “homes” so publicly on display. But tell me what other option we had!
We have watched while a local “Independent” Councillor opened a campaign office in Riverwalk Court ; a slap in the face to the homeowners and the years of struggling to get the issues recognised. We have witnessed Social Media comments from the very same councillor indicating how tough/ costly it is to be an Independent and if we would like to make a donation to her campaign. Not only is this inappropriate and callous in the extreme, it reflects poorly on council and its councillors.
The years have taken their toll. We are emotionally and physically exhausted – we are spent. There are days when sleep doesn’t come at all and our appetites desert us as stress mounts. The human cost of this nightmare is not quantifiable but we should never had to go through this.
Riverwalk Court should never have been approved for construction. Its very system of construction was and is not suitable for our climate or the then system of Self Certification. Local Councillors commented that it arrived like lego pieces on the back of trucks to be built on a known flood area. Well that says it all about Riverwalk Court – Single Skin Timber Framed LEGO HOUSE!
I am writing now not to ask anything more of your role as County Manager – indeed I am sure you will default to the current statutory processes which confirm everything we brought to Mr O Lonaigh and Mr Sweeney’s attention all those years ago.
I write merely to say that you have let us down! Shamefully, you have let us down. So while we may find it difficult to sleep at night with the worry of Riverwalk Court, we hold our heads high that we have maintained our integrity throughout. And that at least is priceless
