Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne has called for Mayo County Council to take action against tenants who are receiving Housing Assistance Payments from the council, but are causing serious anti-social behaviour that is affecting their neighbours.
Cllr Kilcoyne outlined a case highlighted to him by a constituent in a Castlebar estate, after a householder, who said they are living in fear due to anti-social behaviour by their neighbours, wrote to him outlining the issues they are facing on a daily basis.
The councillor read out parts of the letter at the September meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District which took place this week. In the letter, the resident said that they were tortured by noise levels all day and night and that gangs of people are standing around jeering and laughing at them.
They also said that when their neighbours moved in, they did so at 11.30pm at night and drove trucks and trailers with furniture across their lawn and tore it up. They went on to say they didn't know what was happening as there were 14 people there and they rang the Gardaí who came to the scene and asked the people to pay for the repair to their lawn, which was never done.
The letter went on to say that there were fires being lit in the back garden of the house at all hours of the day and night and the complainant had to put up a fence because people were coming through the hedges that separated the houses and urinating on their property, they also added that at present there are nine adults and two children living in the house.
Cllr Kilcoyne said the best course of action was to go after the landlords of the house but the resident said in their letter that they approached the landlord one day and they didn't seem to care about their concerns; and that another group of residents also approached the owners of the home one evening and they told the residents that they didn't own it and were only caretakers for the council.
Cllr Kilcoyne said that he would send a copy of the letter he received on to the council management and added that he wanted an investigation to take place into the incidents and he wanted the council to write to the Gardaí to see how many times they had been called to the house in question.
