Category: Upkeep of the estate

Reporting vacant houses and derelict sites

There are two main ways that you can report vacant and/or derelict houses in the estate.  Both of the websites linked below have an online form to report house details.

Westmeath County Council Derelict Sites  – link

The Act defines a Derelict Site as any land which detracts, or is likely to detract, to a material degree from the amenity, character or appearance of land in the neighbourhood of the land in question because of

  • structures which are in a ruinous, derelict or dangerous condition, or
  • the neglected, unsightly or objectionable condition of the land or structures, or
  • the presence, deposit or collection of litter, rubbish, debris or waste.

Under the Act, the Local Authority has to maintain a derelict sites register, make the register available for public inspection, serve a notice on the owner/occupier specifying works to be carried out to prevent or stop dereliction, acquire by agreement or compulsorily any derelict site, impose an annual levy on any derelict site in an urban area, based on 3% of its valuation.

Vacant Homes website – link

A dedicated Empty Homes Unit is being established within his Department’s Housing Delivery Office to drive and coordinate actions at central and local government levels and to support local authorities in their actions. All local authority Chief Executives were requested earlier this month to designate vacant homes officers in each of their authorities to examine Census 2016 and other data on vacant homes in their areas and identify, through a Vacant Homes Action Plan, priority “vacant hot-spot” areas and properties that can be quickly brought back into use.

2017 AGM Announcement

Dear Residents,

The 2017 Annual General Meeting of Ashefield Residents Association will be held in the Newbury Hotel, Green Bridge, Mullingar on Tue 01 Aug 2017 at 8:00 PM

Items for discussion include:

  • Presentation of the 2016 Accounts (available on this website ashefield.com)
  • Maintenance and remedial works in the coming year.
  • Security and vacant houses
  • Laneway between Ashefield and Abbeylands

We would welcome your attendance.

In addition to the AGM announcement:

Thanks for your support in 2016 and we hope that you can be as supportive this year.

Ashefield has a website, e-mail address, Twitter account, and a Facebook page to help you keep up to date and to contact us. We encourage you to use these to stay in touch with both the residents association and other residents. The committee comprises of unpaid volunteers – your neighbours, who are willing to spare some time.

With a view to continuing the work the Resident Association Committee Members will be circulating in the coming weeks. We are requesting a contribution of €20 per household (Unchanged from 2016).To make things easier we have also set up a PayPal account on this website www.ashefield.com into which your contribution may be paid.

Cutting the grass in the common area and other minor expenses cost approximately €1600 in 2016. (Accounts available on www.ashefield.com).

Your contribution is very important. It falls back on us as a community to maintain and improve the common areas such as the green areas within the estate. I am sure you will agree that the estate’s green areas provide both a valuable and relatively safe play area for the estate’s children and their friends.

We realise that time is precious so therefore we appreciate all and any help you can give. This can involve calling on Tesco to collect abandoned shopping trolleys or picking up litter in your area.

Tree pruning & vacant houses

Following up from a number of queries and concerns raised by residents, we appreciate the efforts of Cllr. Ken Glynn who raised them with Westmeath County Council. Thanks to Ken, we have some updates:

  1. Several trees in the estate blocking or reducing the light from the street lamps are now on Westmeath County Council’s list for inspection and pruning (if required) during the 2016/2017 pruning season. streetlight-tree
  2. Concerns regarding a number of vacant houses in the estate have been noted by Westmeath County Council who are following up with the owners. The issues were raised several months ago and you may have noticed works to clear debris and repair walls – these works were followed up by inspections from council staff. The residents association will continue to follow up regarding another house in the area. In the meantime, please note that vacant houses are being monitored and any reports of antisocial behavior/attempted illegal entry should be immediately reported to Mullingar Gardai (+353 44 93 8400)

Community Clean-Up – Saturday May 14th

Ashefield Residents’ Association is asking your help with an estate clean up on Saturday May 14th, 2016 starting at 4pm starting in the area of houses 122-130. We would great appreciate residents to volunteer some time – even if you can only spare 30 mins – to help with the following:

cleanup-image

  • Mowing and edge trimming of footpath grass margins.
  • General tidy around your own house, including the footpath and common areas.
  • Hedge cutting including & removal of dead leaves.

We’d like to encourage as many residents as possible to join us on the day. It’s also a great way to get to know your neighbours and the shared tasks will make the job easy on everyone.

Look forward to meeting you on the day. Many thanks.

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Annual Fund Raising Collection

Dear Resident,

The 2015 Ashefield Residents Annual Fund Raising Collection has commenced. The funds collected are used in the upkeep of the common areas in the estate. The main expense incurred is the grass cutting in the large green areas.

With a view to continuing this work the Resident Association Committee Members have commenced visiting home in the estate requesting a contribution of €20 per household (reduced from €30 in 2013). To make things easier we have a PayPal account on www.ashefield.com into which your contribution may be paid.

(It cost over €1300 to cut the grass and do other minor repairs in 2014. We post details of the accounts on this website

The collection has been well supported in the past and we are sure that we can rely on your support once again this year. We realise that we all have extra pressures due to Household Charge and Property Tax. However despite home owners paying these the County Councils are not providing any additional services. Therefore as always the responsibility falls on all the residents to keep the common areas.

This requests is being made to all residents; be the renting their home or are it’s owner. However if those renting their home feel that this request is better directed to their landlord we would appreciate if they forwarded this note to their landlord.

Estate Spring Clean – Fri 17th April

Hi all – I know this is short notice but some residents have generously volunteered to take part in an estate Spring clean this evening, Friday April 17.

All volunteers are most welcome – even if you spare just 30 mins. There will be rubbish bags available. It is also an excellent opportunity to meet some of your neighbours.

The start time is between 6-6.30pm and starting point will be in the vicinity of houses 145-152.

Huge thanks to Alma, Karl & Yvonne for taking the initiative.

Hope you can join!

Roadsweeper in Ashefield

Following a request by an Ashefield resident, the residents association contacted Cllr. Ken Glynn who kindly arranged for the roadsweeper to visit Ashefield on Monday 30th March at approx. 11am.

Many thanks to Cllr. Ken Glynn for arranging this. If you would like to raise any issue affecting the common areas of the estate, there are a number of options to do so:

  1. Ashefield residents association : info [AT] ashefield.com
  2. Cllr. Ken Glynn
  3. Westmeath County Council

Typically, the residents association will ask Cllr. Glynn for help in matters that may require county council attention e.g. public lighting, littering/dumping, anti-social activities. However any resident or member of the public can contact Westmeath County Council directly. Please feel free to do so as this can be the quickest method to alert them of an issue in the area.

Residents Association – 2014 Accounts Available

Ashefield Residents Association financial accounts for 2014 are now available for download.

These documents lists the 2014 account summary, all the bank lodgements and withdrawals for the year, and a breakdown of the collections per house

Many thanks to everyone who have donated and helped with association activities during the year. We rely on your donations to maintain the common areas of the estate and for upkeep when needed for the common good. For 2015, we hope that you will continue to offer your much-needed support. If you would like to contribute towards the upkeep of the estate common areas or have not yet been able to do so, we can accept payments by Paypal. The link is on the right hand side bar of the website.