Kieran Foley reports
UPDATE ON CEOL NA MARA
AN UPDATE has been sought on the provision of social housing at Ceol na Mara in Kill.
Speaking at the January Comeragh District meeting of Waterford City & County Council, Cllr John O’Leary (FF) said issues associated with the estate seemed to be “going on for an eternity”.
Cllr O’Leary highlighted the current shortage of houses and the problem of homelessness.
Sinead Breathnach (Housing) explained that Ceol na Mara was “very near finalisation”.
“We are waiting on the final report from consultants and the fire safety retrofitting,” she said.
Ms Breathnach said Respond! Housing Association hoped to have everything ready by the end of February.
JETPATCHER FOR COMERAGH DISTRICT
WATERFORD City & County Council’s Comeragh District requires its own jetpatcher, according to a local councillor.
Cllr M J O’Ryan (FF) believes there should be three jetpatchers in Waterford – one each for the Comeragh, Dungarvan-Lismore, and Metropolitan Districts.
“We could even do with the three of them in Comeragh,” said Cllr O’Ryan when raising the issue at the January Comeragh District meeting of Waterford City & County Council.
He suggested that one jetpatcher should be specifically “zoned” for the Comeragh District as it was “urgently needed”.
Senior Engineer Pat McCarthy explained that Waterford City & County Council currently had one jetpatcher in operation but said that a second machine would arrive shortly.
“It was a big step to get a second jetpatcher,” he said.
Mr McCarthy explained that this would be a “specialist machine”.
“It will be a first for the local authority to get that type of machine,” he said.
TIME TO ‘NAME & SHAME’
FURTHER calls have been made for the introduction of a ‘name and shame’ policy to tackle littering, fly-tipping and illegal dumping.
At the January Comeragh District meeting of Waterford City & County Council, councillors spoke of specific examples of such activities within local areas.
Cathaoirleach of the District Cllr Liam Brazil (FG) suggested putting forward a motion calling for the implementation of a name and shame policy to “frighten people”.
Director of Services Fergus Galvin explained that the council planned on distributing photos of extreme cases of littering, fly-tipping and illegal dumping on social media.
He said Waterford City & County Council would also trial newer technology in order to catch offenders.
Mr Galvin said he would raise the ‘name and shame’ issue with the Department of the Environment.
“But generally if a fine has been issued and paid that is the end of the matter,” he said.
FIRE SERVICE’S FALSE ALARMS
WATERFORD’S Fire Service dealt with 178 false alarms in 2015.
Speaking at the January Comeragh District meeting of Waterford City & County Council, Cllr M J O’Ryan (FF) sought further information on the figures.
Chief Fire Officer Niall Curtin explained that there were a total of 44 “malicious false alarms”.
He explained that there were also many “good intent” false alarms which involved alarm malfunction and primarily related to commercial and industrial buildings.
In total, Waterford Fire Service responded to 1,337 call-outs in 2015.
Mr Curtin added that the service responded to 38 incidents associated with flooding in December.
