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Officials react to regeneration report

Thursday, 13 March 2008

OFFICIALS at Ballymun Regeneration Limited (BRL) have reacted to a report last week which concluded that the rebuilding project was years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of euro over budget.
The report from the State’s spending watchdog body, the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG), said the regeneration scheme’s original e442 million budget approved in 1999 was dwarfed by the current expected cost which is more than double that figure.
The report also revealed that the project was running six years behind schedule and wouldn’t now be finished before 2012.
But BRL manager Ciaran Murray defended the project and said the original estimate was a budget figure put together “without the benefit of detailed surveys, design, salaries and administrative costs”.
“Nor did it provide for the considerable costs of social regeneration, though this is an essential part of the project,” said Mr Murray.
“Research shows it will take a generation of social regeneration activities and initiatives to bed in the good work that is being done and ensure the future success of the regeneration programme.”
According to the C&AG report, the final cost of the regeneration programme is now estimated at around e942 million.
It also says the project will take years longer than originally expected but Mr Murray explained that the delays were unavoidable.

“They include dealing with the presence of unmapped existing infrastructural services that required time to find and relocate, planning challenges in the courts, enforced changes in demolition methods due to asbestos, procurement problems in an overheated construction market and the liquidation of some contracted companies,” he stated.
The C&AG report backed BRL up on this matter.
“There were also delays in moving tenants to their new homes, procurement problems in an overheated construction market, liquidation of some contracted companies, health and safety issues and an industrial dispute,” it recognised.
However, according to the C&AG, the delays could have been reduced with better planning and risk management.
It was also suggested that a risk analysis be carried out to ensure the remainder of the project is managed correctly and goes to plan.
Mr Murray said that BRL would be undertaking the analysis.
The report also warned that anti-social behaviour could undermine the sustainability of the regeneration and said its underlying causes needed to be addressed.
It was stated that a three-year strategy to tackle crime, anti-social behaviour and drug abuse in the area which was launched in June 2007 should help in this regard.
The Ballymun project is one of the largest of its kind in Europe and according to last week’s report, the programme is likely to set a standard for future regeneration work in Ireland.
So far over 1,000 families have been relocated from the flats to newly built homes close-by.
It is envisaged that by the end of this year 1,518 housing units will have been completed. However, 2,256 homes still need to be built.
“It’s been difficult for residents having to put up with the physical work of building and demolition going on around them and we appreciate their patience and goodwill,” said Mr Murray.
Local councillor Dessie Ellis (SF) warned that more patience would be needed as the regeneration is unlikely to be finished for some time to come.
“Only around 55 per cent of the project has been completed so far so we still have a long way to go,” he told Northside People.
“I always suspected that planners were being overly ambitious with their timescales and funding.
“I think the previous plans depended on everything going like clockwork, which just wasn’t realistic.”
Community activist Seamus Kelly said locals were still waiting for one of the most important elements of the project to be put in place.
“What we need to bring real jobs and investment to the area is the long overdue shopping centre,” he said.
“Without a new shopping centre Ballymun is dead.”

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