Council may pay to clean up hotel

THE FAILURE of a developer to clean up the derelict Ard Rí hotel in Ferrybank could cost Waterford City Council €200,000.

Waterford City Council is keen to get the area cleaned up before the arrival of tall ships to the city next summer, while the hotel building overlooking the river Suir is regularly the subject of public disorder and vandalism.

The owners of the site were refused planning permission for a major development on the site by the city council and Kilkenny County Council in 2009.

Despite an enforcement order against the owners, the site still remains in a dilapidated condition.Waterford City Council is awaiting legal permission to clean up the site. Waterford city councillor John Cummins yesterday said it was “unacceptable that the people of Waterford are going to have to pay out money to clean up a developer’s mess.

“But,unfortunately, because it’s such a prominent site over the landscape of Waterford, the council are going to step in . . . it is a long-drawn-out process but all the legalities have to be followed.”

Mr Cummins said knocking the building was “unfortunately not an option that’s open to the council because we have to pursue the least-cost option.

“The ideal thing would be to knock it, but we’re not in a position to be able to do that.”

Director of planning with Waterford City Council John Andrews added: “We had served an order on them to carry out works on the site and the closing date of that was last week. Now we have to consider our position – if a further notice is ignored we will have to go to court.”

Mr Andrews said the building needed to be secured and the entrance to the first and second floors needed to be blocked off.

“We have put new locks on the entrance and sent the keys to the owners, but people keep coming and breaking the locks.”

Gardaí at Ferrybank are investigating the cause of a fire on Sunday at the hotel site.

The fire reached from the third up to and including the fifth floor in the latest in a number of incidents at the site. However, no injuries have been reported as a result of the blaze.