The Council’s inability to replace the lights along Bilberry Road to Rice Bridge led one Independent Councillor to rage at the executive: “A crowd of fools, is all we look like to people in my view”.
Councillor Joe Kelly made the comments recently at the December meeting of Waterford Metropolitan District Council.
“A colleague of ours regularly contacts the Council, about four or five lights are gone,” said Councillor Kelly. “The answer he gets from the Council is that it’s a healthy and safety and difficulties of access issue.”
Cllr. Kelly went on to explain that somebody he knows recommended something as simple as using a cherry picker to send a worker up to do the necessary changes or repairs. Councillor Kelly expressed his view that the Council’s failure to find simple solutions makes them look bad in the eyes of the public.
“About a year, or its even going on two years at this stage, we have that problem, and the same inaction, morbid, just frozen in-action,” he said.
“It seems to be there is no willingness to do anything, not that we can’t do it. That’s a simple solution, unless there is some major problem that I don’t know.”
Speaking about a related issue moments later, he said: “That’s what frustrates me with this Council, everything is waiting for something, waiting for a report, when are we actually going to do something?”
“It’s becoming an embarrassment at this stage,” he said.
In response, Senior Architect, Michael Murphy, said light-heartedly that he was disappointed to hear Councillor Kelly’s frustrations.
“I understand your frustrations Councillor. It is not just as simple as getting a cherry picker. You will notice we had quite a high tide there last week and at high tide the lights are outside the flood defences, the cables are getting wet and that’s why these lights are off,” he said.
“We are looking at a long term solution,” Mr. Murphy added.
AARON KENT
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
