Cllr Seanie Power
Support for Tidy Towns
LOCAL communities have been praised for achieving impressive results in this year’s Tidy Towns competition.
Speaking at the Comeragh District meeting of Waterford City & County Council, Cllr M J O’Ryan (FF) complimented all of the villages on their results, which included: Stradbally (314), Portlaw (257), Kilmacthomas (252), Ballymacarbry (307).
Cllr Liam Brazil (FG) concurred with this praise and asked that the council allocate money to support Tidy Towns groups.
He said these groups were “doing a lot of the council’s work”.
Cllr Brazil called for the council to support other community groups as well.
Director of Services Fergus Galvin agreed that the Tidy Towns results were impressive.
“It’s very gratifying to see a significant improvement again this year,” he said.
He praised the hard work of local communities and said the council provided significant support to community groups including Tidy Towns’ groups.
Mr Galvin said Waterford City & County Council would continue to provide support to such groups.
Bottle bank in Portlaw
ATTEMPTS are still underway to secure a suitable location for a bottle bank in Portlaw.
Cllr Mary Butler (FF) raised the issue once again at the October Comeragh District meeting of Waterford City & County Council.
Cllr Butler said she was aware that the council had found a location during the summer but had encountered subsequent problems.
She sought an update, saying that the bottle bank’s current location by the village’s GAA pitch was inconvenient for many people.
Director of Services Fergus Galvin said the council had identified “yet another site”.
“But I’m almost afraid to commit to anything at this stage,” he said.
“We have already identified three or four sites but we came up against an issue every time.”
Mr Galvin said he hoped to have further details at the next meeting.
Water quality in Clonea Power
CLONEA Power’s long –running water quality issues should finally be addressed in the New Year, according to a Waterford City & County Council official.
At the council’s October Comeragh District meeting, Cllr Declan Clune (SF) sought an update on the village’s water quality issue.
Cllr Seanie Power (FG) called for the council to put pressure on Irish Water to resolve the issue.
He said residents were stressed and said the issue had been going on for 20 years and couldn’t be “put on the long finger” any longer.
Cllr Power said he was receiving reports of the problem on an ongoing basis.
Director of Services Fergus Galvin explained that the proposal to address the situation involved pumping water across from the Rathgormack supply into Clonea Power.
He said Irish Water was looking at this as “a long term solution”.
“Hopefully they will make significant progress in the early part of next year,” he said.
Mr Galvin added that a lot of effort and money had went into trying to resolve the issue, including scouring of pipes and the installation of new filters.
He admitted that this had not been successful, to which Cllr Power replied: “I told you that from the very first day”.
Cllr M J O’Ryan said there needed to be recognition that the people of Clonea Power were suffering because of their water quality.
Frustration with Eircode roll-out
AN Post’s handling of the Eircode roll-out is continuing to cause frustration amongst local councillors.
At the October Comeragh District meeting of Waterford City & County Council, Cllr M J O’Ryan (FF) said he had received a reply in relation to the issue from Minister for Communications Alex White.
Cllr O’Ryan had previously raised the issue at a number of council meetings.
“The Minister says addresses are not changing and people do not need to change the address they normally use. He says the Eircode, which is unique to each address, should be added to the address which is normally used” explained Cllr O’Ryan, who added that he agreed with any attempt to make the delivery of post more efficient.
“If he’s saying addresses are not changing, then why are An Post staff re-writing addresses?” asked Cllr O’Ryan.
He said he believed Eircode was a good system but said he had a problem with the way in which An Post was implementing it.
Cllr O’Ryan explained that the delivery of letters was being delayed because of incorrect addresses, for example Ballymacarbry being listed as County Tipperary.
“An Post need to stop this practice of delaying letters,” he said.
Cllr Brazil said he could understand Cllr O’Ryan’s frustration and asked if he could give a list of the areas which were affected by the issue.
Cllr O’Ryan explained that areas serviced from Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir post offices were affected, including Rathgormack, Clonea Power, and Carrickbeg.
He added that he believed similar issues existed in West Waterford and Waterford City.
