Companies digging up streets invited to discuss state of town
VIRGIN MEDIA, SIRO AND GAS NETWORKS IRELAND TO BE ASKED TO ADDRESS COUNCIL
REPRESENTATIVES of utility companies engaged in digging up Wexford streets are to be invited to a Council meeting to talk about the state of the town.
The proposal has come from Cllr. Ger Carthy (Independent) who asked for Virgin Media, Siro and Gas Networks to come and meet councillors and explain to them what is happening.
Speaking at last week’s Wexford Municipal District meeting, Cllr. Carthy is concerned that the Council will be left out of pocket for the cost of repairs when all the digging is over.
‘I welcome Virgin Media, Natural Gas and Siro but we are going to have to pay for it. We are going to have to commit millions to re-surfacing the streets. Someone is going to have to pay for it and it’s not going to be Wexford County Council as far as I’m concerned’, he said.
Cllr. Carthy complained about a channel which was dug on the main Newtown Road thoroughfare from the top of Hill Street to Wexford General Hospital and has subsided, causing an uneven surface. He asked why the digging wasn’t carried out off the main road in the cycling lane.
Cllr. David Hynes (Independent) said the disruption around town is terrible. ‘We need to hear from these people and to find out how long townspeople and visitors have to put up with this’.
Wexford District Engineer Sean Kavanagh said most of the streets in town have only been temporarily re-instated as the infrastructural work is ongoing and will continue into 2018 in a joint venture between Gas Networks and Irish Water.
In Newtown Road, the first phase is pipe-laying followed by testing and then the contractors will return to make connections. Mr. Kavanagh said the location of existing services dictate where the pipes are laid.
In relation to areas being dug up more than once, he said: ‘Unfortunately, we don’t have it in our gift to stop areas being dug up for multiple excavations’.
The engineer told councillors that due to a levy placed on them by the County Council for road opening, Virgin Media have halted their extension into Bishopswater.
The Mayor of Wexford Cllr Jim Moore said it would help to know what the work schedule is for the Christmas period and also in the long term. ‘It wouldn’t be a bad idea for them to attend here to outline what they have done and what is the running order in the future.’
Cllr. George Lawlor said they should not lose sight of the fact that natural gas will be a very positive development for the town. He spoke to a small restaurant owner who will save €400 a week in energy costs. He said the gas network would have to be fully tested before the streets are properly re-surfaced.
‘Maybe it’s time to bring back the goose for a bit of PR’, Cllr. Lawlor suggested in a reference to the logo of a Greenland goose with the slogan ‘Sorry But It Will Be Worth It’ which was used during the major disruption caused by the main drainage scheme more than 20 years ago.
In a written report, the District Engineer said Virgin Media broadband would be finishing new excavations by December 18 and completing re-instatements up to December 21 for the Christmas holiday period.
He reported that Siro have been installing a fibre broadband network in Wexford since the second quarter of 2016 and are mostly making use of existing ESB infrastructure overhead and underground which minimises excavations of roads and footpaths.
To date, they have made services available to more than 7,000 premises in Wexford (representing about 70% of the town). Some areas are not possible to serve due to technical issues with ESB infrastructure. Siro expect to be in the town until at least the end of next March, building out smaller sections of the network.