There are calls for Clare County Council to increase engagement with residents in this county who’ve been impacted by anti-social behaviour.
It follows one Ennis resident describing her ‘living hell’ she has endured in recent years, with complaints to the local authority here nearly quadrupling since 2018.
Figures obtained following a Freedom of Information request from Clare FM show 316 complaints relating to anti social behaviour were made to Clare County Council in 2020.
135 of those were in Ennis, 106 in West Clare and 26 were in the Killaloe area, along with 2 unidentified incidents.
That’s more than double the 138 incidents that were documented in this county in 2019, and nearly four times the 81 in 2018.
Documents seen by Clare FM show residents in all areas of the county have voiced their concerns about loud neighbours, house parties, intimidation, drug issues and poor waste management in the last number of years.
One dweller in the Ennis area says she and her family have been through a ‘living hell’ since the arrival of new residents in the estate she lives in a number of years ago.
The woman, who’s a family carer and wishes to remain anonymous, claims her written complaints to Clare County Council about the issues she’s faced haven’t been acknowledged.
The issues have led to calls for the local authority to increase its engagement with residents who express their concerns about unruly tenants.
Three Tenancy Enforcement Officers have been hired as of January to help address the issue in the county, with the job to ‘proactively’ investigate such complaints.
The Council has told Clare FM it is continuing its close level of engagement with An Garda Siochana to discuss specific cases and ask for their assistance where required.
The local authority says Covid lockdowns ‘significantly increased’ the number of complaints, and that its Estate Management Unit has been ‘successful and effective’ at proactively dealing with them.
Ennis Fine Gael Councillor Mary Howard says a safer system for residents to make issues known to the local authority should be examined.
Clare County Council is encouraging those who wish to complain about anti-social behaviour issues impacting them to contact [email protected]
