Estate grants to be decided this week

THE Elected members of Wicklow Municipal District are to visit each local authority estate in their area as they try to decide which estates will receive ‘Children at Play’ signs.

Last year, the district received €8,000 to allocate in Estate Development Grants. While the initial plan was to allocate the full amount to various local authority estates, Cllr John Snell felt the process should be re-evaluated because estates which received funding in 2016 were again due to receive funding.

The sum of €4,000 was held back to allow other estates which hadn’t received any prior funding to apply for the grant.

Each ‘Children at Play’ sign costs €85 (excluding the installation cost) and council staff intend to erect around 47 signs. Some estates have existing poles which the signs can be placed on while others will require new poles. The scheme only applies to local authority estates.

‘We kept back the €4,000 so there would be requests for the signs. It’s more to do with safety of children. The obligation is on us as a local authority,’ said Cllr Snell.

After Councillors were provided with a list of all the relevant estates in the district, there was some debate over weather the largest estates should get priority as they were likely to contain the most children.

The elected members gave a commitment to visit each estate in their area to evaluate which are most in need of the signs.