Improvement works taking Estates receive place across entire district funding for works
ROAD and engineering works are continuing in Wicklow Municipal District.
Speaking at last week’s meeting of Wicklow Municipal District area engineer Kevin Scanlon provided the members with a comprehensive report on the works that were being under taken in the district.
He said that work were continuing on the day-to-day maintenance works and repairs in the district. In June two Disabled Persons Grants had been proceeded while one had been carried out.
Three houses had been completed ready for re-letting while works on six other houses had started.
In terms of roads four local improvement schemes had been completed and work on the Laragh to Trooperstown Road footpath had started.
He said he hoped that works on some pedestrian crossings and lighting jobs would start in July and be completed by August.
Four road improvement jobs had been completed in the past three weeks and works at the Grand Hotel will start after the footpath in Laragh is completed.
He said this is expected to start in the coming days after the Round Ireland Festival and will take approximately two weeks to complete.
Mr Scanlon said the outdoor staff are ‘flat out with grass cutting and bins are being emptied daily’.
However he said there were issues in certain areas with people not putting rubbish in bins or using public bins to dispose of domestic rubbish.
Cllr Irene Winters commended Mr Scanlon for the comprehensive report. She said a number of residents in the area had raised concerns about the lack of notice from Irish Water and asked if when the body was applying for road opening licences they could be instructed to notify residents.
Mr Scanlon said he would look into the matter but said a lot of the recent works carried out by Irish Water had been classed as emergency works.
Cllr Winters said she felt that ‘some emergency works were being classed as emergency after the fact’.
Cllr Shay Cullen said there was ongoing issues with parking in Laragh and asked Mr Scanlon to look at the possibility of parking in Trooperstown Wood to ‘take some of the pressure off ’.
Cllr John Snell said the residents in Glenealy had been hoping that the car park there would be resurfaced before the Tidy Towns judging.
He also asked Mr Scanlon to have a look at carrying out some works along the old N11 coming out of Rathnew.
‘A lot of work has been done in the town recently by volunteers on various groups and schemes but it’s very hard to ask people to go beyond the turnoff for the old N11 and there’s a lot of broken trees.’
Cllr Mary Kavanagh raised concerns about the pedestrian crossing on the Dunbar Road and Mr Scanlon assured her it would be done as soon as Irish Water was finished in the area.
Cllr Kavanagh also echoed Cllr Winters’ concerns saying the Irish Water website is not updating. ‘It’s disgraceful. People have no idea when their water is going to be off or on. It’s appalling.’
She also raised concerns about the condition of the Black Castle saying it wasn’t looking great.
‘The Lighthouse is also like something out of the last century. There’s about six layers of paint coming through. We are trying to impress people and it looks shoddy.’ Cllr Gail Dunne agreed that ‘the lighthouse is letting the town down’. He also said that he was disappointed that the works at the Grand hadn’t be done yet but said he understood why. SEVERAL housing estates in Wicklow Municipal District received Estate Development Grants.
District administrator Joan Sinnott told the members of Wicklow Municipal District last week that there had been ten complete applications from various estates in the district with a total of €8,000 available.
She said this €8,000 had been distributed among the ten estates based on their size and how many local authority houses were in the estate.
Cllr Shay Cullen said the estates that had applied for the funding were pro-active but said other estates might not realise funding is available. He also said some estates don’t have a structure in place to apply for grants.
Cllr Mary Kavanagh said the grants were advertised on the local newspapers and on the council website saying ‘I don’t see how we can do more’ to encourage them.
Cllr Winters said estates ‘need someone in the estate who is going to drive this and not all estates have that’.