Abandoned Mountmellick business placed on Derelict Sites Register

Legal action on a large, derelict business property in Mountmellick has been initiated by Laois County Council.

The once thriving Central Garage on Emmett Street, vacant for over 13 years, has recently been placed on the Derelict Sites Register. 

A notice was placed on the building in September, addressed to the receiver, that the property was entered on the register.

The owner of the site will be instructed by the council to clean up the site. If they fail to do so, fines will be levied. The council is also in its rights to carry out a compulsory purchase of a derelict site. 

The council replaced disintegrating hoarding on the gate last year with metal sheeting out of its own funds.

A clean up appears to have begun on the site in recent weeks.

Mountmellick Tidy Towns has expressed hope that the property can be brought back to use. 

A spokesperson spoke to the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

"We are delighted to see the derelict sites notice, it is a start. As a tidy towns group we have put a lot of work over the last number of years, with the help of volunteers, artists, our local councillor, Laois County Council office staff and workers and the Macra group to keep the frontage fairly decent.

"Hopefully it will not be another 10 years before we see development taking place. Whether its for business or housing, we have no preference, just that something happens and it's not left for another 10 years the way it was.

"The homeowners either side of the garage are worried for their properties, and we back them on that. It is in a great spot for development. It's a huge area with huge potential. Touch wood something will happen," the group said.

The Mountmellick Nissan garage was liquidated in 2011 after 46 years, and the empty property become a centre for anti social behaviour, with doors and windows smashed, and the interior trashed, before it was boarded up in 2014. 

The large site stretches back to Twomey Terrace housing estate, and includes three houses, two showrooms and two workshops. A well known landmark on the N80 road, its boarded up windows are painted with murals on behalf of Mountmellick Tidy Towns.

A “derelict site” means 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: The existence on the land in question of structures which are in a ruinous, derelict or dangerous condition, or The neglected, unsightly or objectionable condition of land or any structures on the land in question, or The presence, deposit or collection on the land in question of any litter, rubbish, debris or waste, except where the presence, deposit or collection of such litter, rubbish, debris or waste results from the exercise of a right conferred by statute or common law.