Hopes high that new sewerage scheme for Limerick town won’t be flushed away
A SOLUTION to the decades-long campaign to build a proper sewerage treatment in Askeaton may, finally, be in sight, according to local councillor Kevin Sheahan.
A new scheme, he told the Limerick Leader, is currently being fine-tuned by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and will be launched by Minister Darragh O’Brien within the next month or so.
Under this scheme, he explained, Minister O’Brien will make funding available to local authorities to develop sewerage treatment plants in towns like Askeaton which are in desperate need of such plants.
“The minister has made it quite clear to me that it is up to local authorities to have their submissions ready to go,” Cllr Sheahan said this week and he is absolutely determined to ensure that, once the scheme is announced, Limerick City and County Council will have plans for Askeaton ready to go.
“We have the land bought. I wouldn’t say there is a huge amount of work to be done,” he said. “The council now has to prepare and be ready to jump once it is announced.”
He is expecting that announcement within four or five weeks, he added.
Cllr Sheahan has been highlighting the lack of a proper treatment plant in his hometown for many years and has also highlighted the recurring problem of raw sewerage flowing into the river Deel. Waiting for Irish Water to build a plant is not an option, according to Cllr Sheahan.
“Irish Water will never put in a treatment plant in Askeaton in my lifetime,” he said. “They have too much on their plate with bigger towns.” But once a plant is built under the new scheme, it would be handed over to and maintained by Irish Water, he added.
Cllr Sheahan is also deeply concerned about what he sees as over-restrictive planning regulations in the new Development Plan for Limerick which is currently being prepared.
“We have a housing crisis,” he said. “We are a rural county. We have a city, we have Newcastle West and after that, it is all small towns and villages. If people can’t build in rural areas, and can’t build in the towns because there is no sewerage plants, where are they going to live?”
He has raised the matter with Minister O’Brien who has advised him that a team, headed up by Deputy Eamon O’Cuiv is preparing a report on development and housing in rural Ireland.
Cllr Sheahan believes the Development Plan should be postponed to allow that report to be finalised.
He now wants a special meeting of the council to be called to discuss the Development Plan and the sewerage treatment plant issue.