Derry & Strabane Mica call to be amended amid fears of hefty bills to register

Derry City and Strabane Council will amend their call for residents who believe they have defective blocks in their homes.

A previous notice of motion was passed calling for officers to quantify the number of homes affected by pyrrhotite and mica in the council area, however, Sinn Féin Cllr Ruairi McHugh raised the matter at the Environment and Regeneration Committee after he was contacted by constituents who were concerned at criteria asking for evidence of certification.

Cllr McHugh said: “I know council are currently in the process of trawling the area and getting people to respond and register their property.

“Recently I had the unfortunate privilege of being invited out to view one of the properties within our own area and I know there is at least one other property within the Derg area.

“I know through talking to both owners that they were aware of council’s call for information and I asked them if they had registered their property but they said they hadn’t.

“The reason they gave was when they looked at the information the council was asking for, one of the criteria was evidence of certification. I know that in one instance one of the defective blocks was mica and we are all too aware of the situation with that in Donegal.

“They said the cost of getting that certification is in the region of thousands of pounds and with no scheme in place on this side of the border for any recompense to them, they aren’t going to spend four or five thousand pounds just to register that property.

“I’m just highlighting that because it is an issue in our area and if we are going to get people to respond to that call to register then we shouldn’t be prohibiting them.”

Karen McFarland, Director of Health and Communities explained if Members so wished, the call to residents could be amended.

“If members wish we could amend that report it to say if people suspect they have mica we could register it.

“Certainly we do not have a budget set aside to be able to undertake the testing, it is a very costly exercise. Unfortunately, we as officers are not aware of any other funding mechanisms that members of the public could access in order to do the testing.”

Alderman Derek Hussey gave his support to amending the call, adding: “All that’s being asked for is information to find out the extent of the problem, To leave it open so that people can register, yes, I think I have a problem, let that be done.”

Ms McFarland confirmed that officers would follow it up.

The call out for people who believe they are affected went out from the Council after the first confirmed case of MICA in the city and district earlier this year.

Gillian Anderson

Local democracy reporter