Council to pay electricity bills

WEXFORD County Council has agreed to pay the electricity bills of residents of John’s Gate Street Flats in Wexford for the months of December and January while the installation of a new heating system is awaited.

The old heating system has been broken for months and is due to be replaced by a new unit costing €150,000 which is being funded by the Government.

Following lengthy delays, the work is due to start in early January and will take a month to complete and in the meantime residents are using electric heaters supplied by the Council.

Due to the cost of running plug-in heaters, the local authority has agreed to cover the electricity bills of approximately 19 tenants from now until the installation work is completed, according to Cllr. George Lawlor.

Cllr. Lawlor has been liaising between residents and the housing department of the Council.

The flats are heated by a ‘district’ system which distributes heat to the entire street complex from one unit.

‘It has been problematic for months and I’ve been trying to get it expedited,’ said the Labour councillor. ‘The Council have supplied the residents with electric heaters which are unsatisfactory and costly’.

‘Time and again I have asked for the project to start but to be fair to the Council, because of the scale of it, they had to employ consultants and they appear to be the ones who have held it up. It is due to begin in January. They are awaiting specialist parts’.

Welcoming the Council decision to pay the tenant’s electricity bills, Cllr. Lawlor said: ‘You can’t have older and vulnerable afraid to turn on a heater because of the cost’.