'Nothing to live for' in Bray

Local authority estates in Bray have been neglected by the State and council. The RAPID programme promised much but hasn't delivered, writes Rory Hearne

'I hadn't even a loaf of bread in the house last week. I used to get €5.30 euro a week towards chicken I need for a dietary problem but that was cut [as part of the 'savage 16' cuts in 2003]. I got an awful fright when I received a letter summonsing me to the council. Between the hospital, rent and bin charges I'm now in rent arrears of €80 with them and I won't get repairs while I'm in arrears. The Celtic Tiger must have galloped past here: we only saw his tail," says Anne, a 65-year-old widow. She lives in Oldcourt, one of five local authority estates (including Ballywaltrim Heights and Fassarroe) in Bray, Co Wicklow, which were designated a RAPID (Revitalising Areas Through Planning, Investment and Development) area in 2001 due to high levels of poverty. Five years on, poverty is still prevalent in the estates as a result of local and central government neglect.

Gaping cracks in walls, causing damp, are left untreated for years. Drafty windows and doors are not replaced. There is overcrowding in houses awaiting extensions and there's no central heating. Tenants who are more than four weeks in arrears of rent are informed that repairs will not be carried out until their arrears have been cleared. However, Catherine Halligan of Bray Town Council says that emergency repairs are attended to.

Over 30 per cent of lone-parent families were in consistent poverty in 2004 compared to 7 per cent of the overall population. The area has a high percentage of lone parents. Desiree, who lives in Oldcourt, had to quit her job because, when she went working full-time, she lost her medical card and lone parent's allowance and had to pay €800 a month childcare and €75 a week rent to the council because of the principal earner clause which stipulates that the person living in a council house who earns the highest amount must pay rent, regardless of whose name is on the tenancy agreement. She had to borrow from the credit union to pay the bills. She doesn't qualify for the new €1000 child allowance. Her child is eight and the allowance only applies to children up to six. "I am one of the people supposed to be targeted as it's a RAPID area, but instead I'm penalised for working," says Desiree.

"It came to a head when I didn't have the money to bring my daughter Katya, who suffers recurrent tonsillitis, down to the doctor. I couldn't afford to take the day off so I waited but she got worse. She missed a full week in school... If she misses any more days from school I'll get a letter home warning if it happens again the social worker will be on to me." People from the area held a protest at the last Bray Town Council meeting calling for the principal earner clause to be dropped.

The houses in Oldcourt are timberframe houses built as a temporary measure in the 1960s and 1970s with a 15-year life. The council refurbished them in the meantime by putting brick around the outside and fires inside. There are serious structural problems and residents say the estate should be knocked. The tenants say the timber frame is a significant factor in the high number of fires in the estate.

However, Catherine Halligan of the council disputes this: "To date no fires in the houses in Oldcourt have been caused by either the structure or the condition of the house."

Eight people have died of fire-related injuries in the past 12 years, seven of whom came from Oldcourt. They are campaigning for a full-time fire service. Margaret Cahill, a Ballywaltrim Heights resident, whose sister Theresa and her baby died over five years ago in Oldcourt estate says: "If there had been a full-time fire service, her and her baby would be alive today."

The area lacks facilities and services. In the Fassaroe estate there's no public phone, no direct transport service and no shop. Niamh Wogan, a community worker in the Little Bray Family Resource Centre says RAPID gave a false picture when it was set up in 2001. "Nothing came in and community support was lost."

Mark O Neill, the local community co-ordinator for RAPID, says that recently RAPID has brought positive developments such as the employment of community development, youth and education workers, the building of the Ballywaltrim Community Centre in 2005, a refurbishment programme beginning in Fassaroe, estate enhancement and traffic calming schemes.

Niamh Wogan explains that a major problem is the lack of family support services and investment by all state agencies. This results in a growth in disenfranchised youth, joyriding and youth alcoholism. "Kids from families in crisis have no expectations, no hope and nothing to live for. No one is telling them what's possible. Some people have done well but the gap has got wider – the people getting left further and further behind need so much more," she says. The number of people seeking help for drugs problems for example, particularly cocaine use, doubled in Bray between 1998 and 2002.

In 2002 there was one youth worker for 700 kids and now they have two years funding for an extra worker, but when that funding ends it will be difficult to keep the projects running. Niamh says they need long-term funding to have an impact.

Last year the council sent letters to all tenants on the Oldcourt Estate informing them that they would inspect their houses and if anything was not up to scratch they would take steps to get them evicted. The tenants say it was because people who couldn't afford to pay the bin charges were leaving rubbish in their back garden.

"They threatened people who couldn't afford to put out the rubbish," explains Catherine Kennedy, a tenant and community activist in Oldcourt. "But people haven't the money to pay for services. The waiver is ten free bags a year in a RAPID area! They should be getting extra bags instead of being isolated further. We had no other way of getting rid of the rubbish other than keeping it in the garden – we can't keep pigs and we can't eat it! We protested to them to withdraw the letter and apologise, which they did. It's like how people were treated in the 1800s, not 2006. The council is like the modern day sheriff of Nottingham."

In 2006 local authority tenants in the RAPID area in Bray are unable to afford basics such as electricity, central heating, meat more than once a week, school books or fuel to heat their houses. They survive through local support networks such as helping neighbours with tea, milk, toilet roll and other necessities. One resident, Claire, said, "I'd love to see Dick Roche and his like living on what we live on." p