Esmonde Street and Lane’s €4m redevelopment needs to combine Uisce Éireann works with new public realm works at the same time to minimise disruption to businesses, heard the September meeting of Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District.
Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune has been discussing the needs of local Irish communities with county and city councillors in Brussels. Wexford councillors Cathal Byrne and Anthony Donohoe were part of a delegation that visited the European Parliament recently as guests of MEP Clune.
Councillors vented their frustrations over continued delays at Gorey Town Park during last week s meeting of Gorey-Kilmuckridge Municipal District.
Sean Meyler from Special Projects gave an update on the town park and said that when work shut down due to level five restrictions, the contractor was two months away from substantial completion.
He said that he didn t know what impact the current lockdown was going to have on the efficiencies of the construction sector, but that when the contractor started back on site in May of last year, it took them a couple of weeks to find their feet again because of issues of supply and subcontractor availability. He also said that he suspects they will return to the site on Monday, March 8, but that unfortunately the bulb planting season has now been missed.
In a lengthy discussion on housing and planning, councillors expressed their anger and frustration at the situation.
The first issue raised related to a B&B accommodation in Courtown, which - councillors heard at the county council meeting the previous day - has not been used since September 2019.
Cllr Diarmuid Devereux said that, while the accomodation may be in place, the lack of out of hours support was a serious issue. That accommodation may be there physically but we have been told that there would be no out of hours service for an emergency that arises over the Christmas. We ve got to do something about that, even if we as councillors provide the service ourselves. People who find themselves threatened with serious injury or death, as a result of homelessness over a period of alcohol abuse that goes on at that time of the year, we need to make sure that we can react and I don t believe that passing that on to the shoulders of An Garda Siochana is adequate, he said.