February Council Meeting
Questions from the February meeting of Leitrim County Council in the name of Cllr Sinead Guckian.
QUESTION: At the February meeting of Leitrim County Council, I ask the Director of Services, Environment, Emergency and Cultural Services, to provide a ‘No Illegal Dumping’ sign on the Slip Road, Drumsna, heading east-bound after the flyover and roundabout. Over the past number of months this area has been subject to fly tipping and illegal dumping. Vehicles appear to travel up the slip road, the Carrick side of the flyover and then down the slip after the flyover, dumping items out their windows, and travelling back onto the N4. The Tidy Towns Committee have struggled to keep this area litter free and request that an appropriate sign is located at the lay-by, detailing fines etc.
REPLY:’No Illegal Dumping’ signs have now been erected at those locations. The Council is aware of the extent of illegal dumping and fly-tipping in this area and everything possible is being done to identify the culprits. The Council appreciates the great work being done by the local Tidy Towns Committee in the Drumsna area.
I welcome the reply from the Director of Services and acknowledges the Council’s speedy response to the problem she highlighted. There are two signs, now, in position at the locations mentioned and on-going monitoring is taking place by Leitrim County council to catch the perpetrators. – 04/02/2013
QUESTION: At the February meeting of Leitrim County Council, I ask the Director of Services, Infrastructure to include Crow Hill, Drumsna in the 2013 ‘low cost safety’ schemes. As per my previous motions, this area of the village has no lighting or footpaths or curbing and the lack of same is dangerous for residents, particularly school children during the winter months. Residents have to walk to and from their homes on Crowhill on a daily basis, in the dark with no pedestrian walkways. It was agreed previously that works in this area was desirable and could be considered for a future safety scheme. (Minutes Feb 2011)
REPLY FROM DIRECTOR:- As agreed previously the works requested are desirable but funding has not yet been identified to allow work to start at this location. The Council will continue to pursue the matter.
I am disappointed that funding has still not been found and activated to address this serious issue. This is a very important issue that needs to be resolved. She has questioned again why funding cannot be sought under the low cost safety scheme and if this proposal can be considered at the Carrick area roads budget meeting due to be held at the end of this month.
Local Improvements Scheme
Background to the LIS Scheme which was suspended in March 2012
The Local Improvement Scheme,( LIS )is a grant aided scheme, funds from central governemnt to carry out road works on non-public roads, roads which serve farmlands, houses, bogs, small bridges. The works must benefit two or more parcels of land owned or occupied by two different persons or in the opinion of the County Council be used by the public.
The works should not be ordinary maintenance of a kind which the applicants could reasonably be expected to do themselves. The applicants must pay a local contribution of 10%-15% of the estimated cost of the project and this must be paid before the commencement of the work.
Applications were received and processed by each County Council, on an ongoing basis, and placed on a priority lis. This was the process up until April 2012 when the Fine Gael/Labour Government announced they would not be funding in 2012 and the scheme was suspended. .
“In April 2012, at the monthly meeting of Leitrim County Council, I sought the support of members in calling on the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar TD to reverse his budget decision which abolished funding of Local Improvement Schemes (L.I.S Schemes) for rural roads. I felt that this was a very unfair measure as many families throughout the county would be affected by the decision.
The previous Fianna Fáil Government had retained funding for the LIS even with the difficult economic climate and this was the 2nd time that a Fine Gael /labour government had just closed this scheme isolating rural people.”
The full support of members was received by Cllr Guckian and the motion was passed April 2012.
Last week the Government announced that they would be reinstating the scheme for 2013. Cllr Guckian sought clarity from the Director of Services, as to whether this was in fact the original scheme being reintroduced and if not what implications are there for the 193 Leitrim applicants that were left in limbo last year. Cllr Guckian advised that it was her understanding that the Government had announced the reintroduction of the scheme but had failed to provide a dedicated fund for Leitrim County Council to carry out the scheme. “ By suggesting that the Council can “instead” use 7% of their roads maintenance budget for the scheme” is little more that giving the Council permission to do the work but not the financial backing or abilitly”.
The Director outlined that under the new arrangement, councils may use up to 7% of their Discretionary Grant towards local improvement schemes if they wish to and that the contributions from locals living on the road will increase to 20% of the total cost of the project. The Director of Services advised that the Discretionary grant was already inadequate to carry out the discretionary program even without having to take a further 7% from it to use for LIS Schemes.
I have great concerns over the Directors comments and also concern over the increase of contribution from locals living on the road. I highlighted at the meeting that this increase means that some people who had been close to the top of the list when the scheme was suspended, will now , having had to wait an additional 12months will also have to find a 100% increase in the cost of their contribution in order to get their roads improved and all of this is still subject to approval from the Council and they will still be expected to pay all the new household taxes etc. it is an extremely unfair situation.
