HOUSEHOLDERS and business owners have lifted the lid on how they feel a residential area of the city centre has gone into “rapid decline”.
Locals have said there has been a “significant increase in verbal and physical assaults, theft, shoplifting, vandalism, open drug dealing and consumption” in the area of Upper Henry Street.
And one landlady has said things have become so bad, female tenants she had have left the city centre, preferring to commute to work at University Hospital Limerick from Tipperary.
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“The atmosphere is now consistently threatening. It is no longer an area where feasibly women could live on their own or feel comfortable day or night. Our area is in rapid decline,” she added.
In a letter to council, local Independent councillor Maria Donoghue wrote the area has seen “a strong drugs culture” and “the locals are subjected to the associated risk activity daily.”
One man wrote of how on one morning he counted 12 people hit by addiction gathered outside the former post office at Henry Street.
He said they were “buying drugs off dealers on scooters, in the middle of the street, in broad daylight.”
“This is a regular occurrence and is totally unacceptable behaviour for residents to have to put up with. It creates an unsafe and unwelcoming environment for residents and visitors alike,” the local added.
“Residents and traders deal, on a daily basis, with begging, intimidation, verbal abuse, drunken/disorderly behaviour, open drug taking on the streets, drug dealing and drug littering, as do staff and pupils of primary schools, creches, shops and offices nearby,” one local wrote.
The comments were made in response to a planning application for a new multi-storey housing development in that particular area of the city.
Developer Indus Ventures is due to find out in the coming days whether plans to demolish a warehouse and construct 48 apartments will get the go-ahead at Mount St Alphonsus Street.
It sparked calls from a number of groups that, should the scheme get the green light, conditions are placed on the developer over who can live there.
Cllr Donoghue wrote: “I am requesting a commitment that, if permission is granted, this development should prioritise occupation by key worker or affordable accommodation.”
Limerick Chamber chief executive Michelle Gallagher also weighed in.
In a letter, she made the same request of the local authority.
“This area of the city centre is in particular need of a significant quantity of affordable and private housing,” she added.
It’s envisaged the development, if granted, would see 25 one-bed apartments and 23 two-bed apartments.
Documents related to the planning application reveal that the developer has agreed with council to offer five of the apartments as social housing and five as affordable homes, as planning laws dictate.
The fate of the remaining homes is unclear.
In documents to planners, agents for the developer have described the accommodation as “an essential response to the ongoing housing crisis and the nationwide shortage of residential accommodation”.
“The current housing crisis has resulted from the nationwide housing supply shortage which has become more pronounced in recent years and is evidenced by the continued increase in property prices and rent levels nationwide,” they added.
Planners are scheduled to make a decision on the proposals by this Friday, August 1.