‘Useless’ - Waterford councillors dismayed at ‘gross inaction’ of executive

A number of Waterford councillors have expressed their dismay at the “gross inaction” of the council executive.

Independent councillor Joe Kelly raised the issue of road markings not being done that were requested at the start of the year.

He went on to express his frustration at the apparent slow progress being made on a number of issues across the city.

Cllr Kelly said: “I just want to point out again that the road markings on Woodgreen in Hillview has not been put back after four years of the new surface.

“The markings that are very small still haven’t been put there and also some footpaths.

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“I actually had Paul [Johnston] up along with some of his colleagues and none of those [works] have been started yet, nevermind completed.

“So I just want to put that on the record and again, I’m not letting it go.

“This is going on since the start of the year and it’s nearly the end of the year. It’s just not good enough and Paul knows the score on it.”

Cllr Kelly then raised the issue of broken lights at the start of the Greenway near Rice Bridge.

He said that there are about four or five lights there that have been out for over two years.

He said that the council executive previously explained that there are “health and safety issues” at the location.

Cllr Kelly suggested a cherrypicker be used to repair the lights, describing it as “a simple solution”.

He continued: “I mean, more of it, just gross inaction from the council or the repair team or whoever is supposed to take care of it.

“It seems to me that there's no willingness to do anything, not that they can’t do it. That’s a simple solution, absolutely simple.

“Unless there’s some major problem beyond that, I don’t know, but that’s what’s being reported back to us.

“I think we should do that and fix those four or five lights. A crowd of fools is all we look like to people in my view.”

In response, Mr Johnston argued it wasn’t as simple as using a cherrypicker to repair the lights.

He said: “Again, I understand your frustrations councillor but it’s unfortunately not just as simple as getting a cherry picker.

“You’d notice there last week we had quite a high tide and at high tide, the lights are outside the flood defences and the cables are actually getting wet.

“We are looking at a long-term solution and we will consider works on the inside of the flood defence scheme.”

Cllr Kelly also spoke of the New Street Car Park, which has lay vacant for several years.

He stated: “We closed that years ago and there’s no sense at all to keeping that closed.

“This famous New Street development, which will probably never happen, and the Michael Street development, is a white elephant as far as I can see.

“There’s no progress and there hasn’t been for years. There’s a critical parking shortage in the city.

“The least you can do is open up at that carpark, put it into a workable position which is not too hard to do and at least we’d have another two or three hundred spaces.”

He went on to again express his frustration at the time it is taking to progress certain projects in the city.

“Again, the answer we get from Michael [Quinn] all the time is that it’s part of a broader scheme or we’re waiting on proposals or waiting on whatever.

“The time for waiting is over. We just need to get on with it. 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? I mean it’s just becoming an embarrassment. Useless.”

In response to Cllr Kelly, Director of Services Michael Quinn humorously said that the Michael Street development is part of a larger scheme.

Mr Quinn stated: “We have finally got the proposal from the developer in relation to what they propose to do.

“It is a complicated site [...] and the commercials are challenging in terms of bringing forward [something] that is financially viable and can be funded.

“So it has taken way longer than we ever anticipated and I suppose looking back in hindsight, if we had this timeline on the table in front of us, we probably would have done something with New Street Car Park as a standalone piece.”

He went on to explain why opening the car park would not be a simple undertaking.

“There’s flooding within the car park, there’s a whole upgrade of the electronic systems, the car park management system, would be required.

“You also have issues with the configuration of the car park. The parking spaces that were there previously weren’t large enough and the corners are quite tight so there’s a significant reconfiguration of the car park needed to reach current standards.

“So in simple terms, that’s why it hasn’t just been brought back into use quickly, because it’s a significant piece of work.”

Mr Quinn added that the executive hoped to bring the proposed development forward for approval at a council meeting early next year.

He also reiterated that the council may have decided to reopen the car park if it had known how long the new development would take.

A number of other councillors echoed the sentiments of Cllr Kelly at the meeting.