Unfinished Housing Developments and Public Safety

Specification of Services Required

Background – Department survey of unfinished estates in County Louth

According to the nationwide survey of unfinished housing estates carried out for the Department of the Environment during 2010, there are 104 Unfinished Housing Estates in Louth comprising 5,916 houses. Of these, 2,666 units were completed and occupied at the time of the survey, while construction had not yet commenced on 1,934 units. The survey is summarised below by location for units “occupied”, “complete but unoccupied”, “under construction”, or “not commenced”.

Town, Village, Suburb / Detached / Semi-detached / Terrace / Duplex / Apartment / TOTAL / No of Estates
Ardee / 53 / 224 / 100 / 70 / 16 / 463 / 8
Blackrock / 11 / 18 / 22 / 0 / 8 / 59 / 4
Carlingford / 23 / 40 / 128 / 28 / 20 / 239 / 7
Castlebellingham / 6 / 14 / 15 / 0 / 24 / 59 / 4
Clogherhead / 10 / 80 / 44 / 0 / 0 / 134 / 4
Collon / 0 / 34 / 12 / 3 / 3 / 52 / 1
Drogheda / 25 / 100 / 181 / 72 / 255 / 633 / 8
Dromin / 5 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 5 / 1
Dromiskin / 28 / 18 / 9 / 0 / 0 / 55 / 3
Dundalk / 377 / 530 / 885 / 351 / 583 / 2726 / 26
Dunleer / 15 / 100 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 115 / 1
Haggardstown / 7 / 46 / 136 / 0 / 15 / 204 / 1
Jenkinstown / 36 / 14 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 50 / 3
Knockbridge / 0 / 36 / 63 / 0 / 0 / 99 / 1
Louth Village / 4 / 14 / 22 / 0 / 0 / 40 / 4
Omeath / 8 / 32 / 49 / 0 / 6 / 95 / 6
Tallonstown / 48 / 74 / 8 / 0 / 0 / 130 / 3
Termonfeckin / 76 / 72 / 74 / 0 / 8 / 230 / 9
Tinure / 17 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 19 / 2
Tullyallen / 63 / 78 / 48 / 0 / 0 / 189 / 2

All Local Authorities have now been requested to undertake an immediate review of the same developments and categorise them into the following categories.

  • Category 1 – nearly completed and appropriately managed by developer active on site
  • Category 2 - appropriately managed from public safety perspective by receiver
  • Category 3 – developer responsible for site management from public safety perspective, but no on-site activity
  • Category 4 – site abandoned, developer uncontactable, no receiver appointed, serious public safety issues present.

Requirements of this Tender

It is proposed that the survey work needed to complete this categorisation of unfinished estates so as to meet the Department’s tight deadline should be outsourced to locally based engineering and surveying companies and practitioners.

Tenders are now invited to be included in a panel of consultants who will assess each site, and categorise into the above heading based on their professional opinion and the necessary legislation.

An extract from Section 1 of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act, 1964 in relation to dangerous places and structures is listed below and is the definition to be utilised.

dangerous place” means an excavation, quarry, pit, well, reservoir, pond, stream, dam, bank, dump, shaft or land that, in the opinion of the sanitary authority in whose sanitary district it is situate, is or is likely to be dangerous to any person;
“dangerous structure” means—
(a) any building, wall or other structure of any kind, or
(b) any part of, or anything attached to, a building, wall or other structure of any kind,
that, in the opinion of the sanitary authority in whose sanitary district it is situate, is or is likely to be dangerous to any person or property;

Form of Report

Candidates will respond on each site in the following manner

  • Date of visit
  • Site Name
  • Address
  • Number of Houses Complete and Occupied
  • Number of Houses Complete and Vacant
  • Number of Houses incomplete
  • Category of Unfinished as defined above
  • Reason for same
  • Precise details of any public safety issue, including photographs
  • Recommended Measures to remedy same

Timescale

  • Issue of Tender Documents – 9 March
  • Return of Sealed Tender and associated declarations etc – 15 March at 1200hrs
  • Return of Completed Site Reports -31 March

Tender Price

Candidates are requested to price each individual development and may price for a single or any multiple of sites but must place a price on the attached spreadsheet against the actual development.

The price quoted should be exclusive of VAT but inclusive of all expenses.

Because of the volume of sites and the short time frame imposed, the Council propose to use a panel and award the project on a per site basis, based first on lowest cost, with a maximum of any one candidate been awarded 20 sites for review.