Residents in Straffan, Kildare 'afraid' to venture outside due to poor pavements

Residents of St Brigid's Terrace, Straffan, Co Kildare are “afraid” to venture outside their homes due to poor surfacing on the pavements, a Social Democrats councillor has claimed.

Cllr Paula Mulroe was speaking on her motion, tabled at the July meeting of Clane-Maynooth Municipal District, which called for the resurfacing of the pavements at St Brigid's Terrace, Straffan.

A similar question - by Labour councillor Angela Feeney - was also heard by the council in conjunction with Cllr Mulroe's motion at the meeting.

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Telling the council that its response did not provide much additional information on the matter, Cllr Mulroe said she had received several “distressing” emails from residents of St Brigid's Terrace in relation to the condition of the pavements there.

People are “afraid to go out”, she told the council, adding that children cannot play outside due to the poor condition of the pavements.

For the council to come back to her with the answer that there is insufficient funding for works to be carried out is “very unhelpful”, she said.

She said LPT funding had been agreed towards the resurfacing of St Brigid's Terrace for 2025, and it had also been promised in previous years.

The residents, Cllr Mulroe said, are “quite understandably frustrated” at this point, adding she would like the matter to be made a priority by the council.

Getting a “one-line response” from the council, “doesn't do the residents any help”, Cllr Mulroe said.

Supporting the motion, Cllr Donna Phelan (FF) asked if there were any way that “part” of the works could be carried out with the LPT funding available, which she said amounted to some €25,000.

She said if there were anything that could be done with the existing funding that would help out the residents there.

Cllr Angela Feeney said she had St Brigid's Terrace on the agenda for “a number of years”, and the works were “long overdue”

She said a costing needs to be carried out for the works, but that if some of the work was carried out with the existing LPT allocation, it would go some way towards reassuring residents.

A council official said the matter would be raised with the MD engineer, and that a full costings will need to be carried out before councillors are updated on the matter.

Cllr Mulroe said it would be “great” to have a costings carried out on the work, and asked that the motion be placed on the progress report.