My derelictsites.com/ website has just gone live.🏚️⚡️🎉 I've created a data-led project focused on vacancy and dereliction in Ireland as part of the wider housing and town-centre crisis. This regeneration project examines the scale and impact of derelict and long-term vacant properties. The public-facing landing page at derelictsites.com/ reviews derelict sites currently on the register across five local authorities—Cork County Council, Cork City Council, Dublin City Council, Limerick City & County Council, and Mayo County Council. I've built a digital database to increase transparency and visually identify dereliction hotspots across each county. This map-based public register tracks locations, enforcement steps, and estimated values. It includes photos of derelict sites and Google Street View links to make the records easier to understand. I've also included useful links and available grants explaining the Derelict Sites Process Workflow. This is a public-facing landing page for draft demonstrations built by me. It provides an overview and links to each register and supporting information. This is a demonstration platform and portfolio project that shows how statutory register data can be structured for public transparency and internal decision support. This website is a regeneration-focused initiative documenting and analysing derelict and long-term vacant property in Ireland. Built as a structured, evidence-led platform, it converts fragmented statutory registers into a clear, map-based resource revealing the scale, geography, and real-world impacts of vacancy, underuse, and town centre decline. The project does more than highlight dereliction as a problem. By combining clean, structured data, mapping, and accessible communication, it helps local authorities, practitioners, and the public understand where dereliction is concentrated, what stage cases are at, and what opportunities exist for regeneration. Through developing this platform, I am building practical expertise in vacancy classification, data cleaning and standardisation (including address and Eircode quality), mapping and visualisation, and stakeholder-focused reporting. My goal is to contribute to a local authority or housing regeneration teams working on Town Centre First delivery, vacant homes activation, and sustainable reuse strategies—bringing a strong digital and data-led approach to real-world implementation. 🔮 Future plans: Expand coverage: Add more local authority registers while maintaining a consistent structure and terminology. Include vacant sites in the register database. Improve data quality: Standardise addresses, add Eircodes where missing, and document a repeatable QA workflow. Richer enforcement timelines: Track key statutory stages and dates more consistently, so progress and delays are visible. Better analytics: Add district and town breakdowns, CPO numbers, trend views such as dereliction clusters, and "time on register" metrics to highlight long-standing cases. Case studies: Include short, evidence-based examples of successful reuse (before/after, costs, barriers, outcomes). Decision-support outputs: Create exportable reports and summaries that support internal briefings and member queries. For collaboration, feedback, or demonstration requests, please get in touch. Regards Rob Cross

Back On Track 🚂 Great to see a train arriving at the Foynes Train Station.

For those interested, I’ve just updated the Dublin City Council derelict sites on my DerelictSites website. 7.0 Dublin City Council — Derelict Site Register derelictsites.com/7-0-Dublin… 📌 Total sites on latest PDF: 149 ➕ Added in latest PDF (new to this database): 10 ➖ Removed from latest PDF (historical records absent): 21 — 3 newly absent since August; 18 already absent. 💰 Total recorded market value: €52,942,000 ✅ Sites with valuation: 111 ❔ Sites with no valuation: 38 🧾 Total illustrative 7% levy estimate (from number column): €10,963,120 (across 119 populated records), excluding interest; not a verified outstanding debt figure. 🕰️ Oldest recorded entry among current sites: DS250 — Harold's Cross Road, 144, Dublin 6W — entered 8 June 2007 (≈ 19.4 years as of 27 October 2026) 🗓️ Average years on register: 4.5 (across 126 current sites with recorded entry dates; 23 without dates excluded) 🗓️ Average months on register: 53.5 📆 Average weeks on register: 232.6 It's worth noting that the latest homelessness figures, at 17,885, include 5,830 children (a record high) and represent a 9.3 per cent increase in a year and a rise of 358 in a month. #Dublin #Ireland #HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland

Thanks to IPAV for the honour of addressing a packed audience of around 600 at Croke Park in Dublin for the European Valuation Conference & Trade Expo 2026. It was a pleasure to showcase how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Artificial intelligence (AI) can help tackle vacancy and dereliction, and highlight heritage buildings at risk across Ireland. #ipav #DerelictIreland #HeritageAtRisk

The destruction of Dublin This north-facing 1934 aerial photograph of Dublin City has been colourised and annotated in red to highlight buildings and structures that were later demolished. It shows the red-brick chimney stacks of the former W. & R. Jacob’s Biscuit Factory, as well as St Peter’s Church on Aungier Street, which was demolished in 1983. Molyneux House, built on Peter Street in 1711, was demolished in 1943. The image also reveals the extent of demolition west of St Stephen’s Green. The Dandelion Market on South King Street was demolished in 1986 to make way for St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre, while the entire Georgian terrace on York Street, including the Salvation Army Hostel (formerly the Congregational Church), was also demolished. #Dublin #Ireland #History #Heritage #HeritageAtRisk #TheColourOfIreland

The Great Dublin Blitz This 1955 aerial photograph, taken by Alexander Campbell Morgan, that I have colourised and annotated it in red to highlight buildings and structures that were later demolished. #Dublin #Ireland #Heritage #HeritageAtRisk

It’s disappointing to see this vandalism in Limerick, especially as the city is seeking UNESCO World Heritage status for several areas. #Limerick #Ireland #Heritage #HeritageAtRisk

The transformation of Dublin Docklands and beyond. This 1955 aerial photograph, taken by Alexander Campbell Morgan, that I have colourised and annotated in red to highlight buildings later demolished. It captures landmarks around the Grand Canal Basin, including Ringsend Gasworks, Trinity College, the Gasometer, the Customs House, and Croke Park. It also shows Trinity College’s lawns before the Berkeley Library, the TCD Arts Building, and the James Ussher Library were built. The 252-foot-high Gasometer, on the corner of Cardiff Lane and Sir John Quay, dominated Dublin’s skyline from 1934 until it was demolished in 1993. It held three million cubic feet of gas and was once the city's tallest structure. #Dublin #Ireland #Heritage #HeritageAtRisk #HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland