An Taisce has asked Cork County Council to take action on a number of derelict properties, including some major buildings like the former Convent of Mercy in Skibbereen and Deasy’s Brewery in Clonakilty.

Letters were sent by email by Ian Lumley, heritage officer with An Taisce, to the council last week.

The local authority was asked to confirm that the building had been registered on the formal Derelict Sites register, and that the relevant 7% annual levy had been imposed.

In a response to The Southern Star, the council said that they would be responding to the independent heritage charity and watchdog ‘in due course’.

The council also pointed out that any property must be placed on the Derelict Sites Register by the end of a calendar year, before it may become subject to levy in the following year, adding: ‘Not all sites that are on the Derelict Sites Register can be successfully levied.’

With regards to the former Convent in Skibbereen, planning permission was granted to Remcoll in 2021 but there has been no movement on the site since.

The building is on the council’s own Record of Protected Structures and even though the building was catastrophically damaged in a fire in 2020, as of this week the building still does not appear on the council’s derelict sites list.

A letter was sent regarding the former Deasy’s Brewery in Clonakilty, also a Protected Structure, where An Taisce pointed out the building is one of the landmarks of the town, and ‘nationally significant’.

A 2022 report from the Irish Heritage News was included along with the letter; the report was prompted by the demolition that year of two of the four brewery chimneys for safety reasons.

An Taisce is now asking the council what legal action they are taking under the Planning and Derelict Sites Act to address the issue of the vacant building.

A similar letter was sent regarding the former Baltimore Fishery School, and another regarding the Linen Hall in Clonakilty; in this, An Taisce claimed that the removal of the roof slates was ‘endangering the building’.

Cork County Council was also sent letters by An Taisce regarding the Protected Structures nos. 3, 5, 42, 54, and 55 on North Street in Skibbereen, as well as ‘longstanding derelicit site’ at 14 Bridge Street, a situation which is ‘having an extremely negative impact’ on the street.

The council stated this week that all sites are reviewed on a weekly basis, and this is done so to assess whether adding the property to the Register ‘is an appropriate course of action to stimulate regeneration’.

It also claimed that there are a range of other sites and properties across the county, not presently on the Derelict Sites Register, ‘where the Town Regeneration Office is engaging directly with owners’ in pre-planning meetings, planning applications and enforcement proceedings, conservation and heritage advice and grants, and vacant property refurbishment grants.