October 2013 Council Meeting
Notice of Motion in the Name of Cllr Sinead Guckian 7/10/2013
At the October meeting of Leitrim County Council I ask the Director of Services, Infrastructure to outline to Members the up-to-date position with regard to the taking over of Group Water Schemes throughout the County and also if he could clarify what will be the position for schemes that will not be taken over when Bord Gais (Irish Water) get control of our public water network, as there still seems to be a lot of confusion as to whether group water scheme members will become collectors for the State, with no local authority assistance to fix leaks, set prices or make arrangements for upgrading and monitoring of their water.
REPLY:
From the 1st of January next Leitrim County Council will cease to be ‘The Water Authority’ for County Leitrim and all of our water and waste water assets,liabilities and responsibilities will transfer over to Irish Water. Leitrim County Council will continue to run the service under a Service Level Agreement for Irish Water for a number of years. What this means in effect is that all of the major decisions in relation to future investment, level of service to be delivered, new connections and water charges etc will be made by Irish Water, in a regulated environment. The Council will act solely as agents for Irish Water and will only carry out whatever is included in the Service Level Agreement. Irish Water is taking control of the Public Water and Waste Water Infrastructure only and will have no responsibility for anything not in the charge of the local authority before the 1st January 2014. Group Water Schemes are privately owned and as such will not be under the control of Irish Water. The Act giving effect to this transfer of assets, liabilities and responsibilities is due to be published and enacted before the end of the year and the detail of the provisions are not yet known. It appears that the Local Authority will remain as the ‘Water Authority’ for the private group schemes, and that the Rural Water Programme will continue to be funded by the Department of the Environment, Community & Local Government and administrated by the Council as before. Upgrades of existing Group Schemes will continue to be administered by the Council but extensions to the network, which will be served with public water supplied by Irish Water, will also require the approval of Irish Water before any such extension can be grant aided. The most up to date information available to this Council is that Irish Water will charge the private group schemes based on the volume of water going through the bulk meter at the start of the group scheme. This suggests a single bill and it would be up to the trustees of the group scheme to arrange collection of the monies due. This will obviously present considerable difficulty, not least in relation to how the usage can be apportioned among the various members, unaccounted for water, water passing through a group scheme into another group scheme etc. Given the very real difficulties that such an approach would present it is the Council’s view that Irish Water may have to consider alternative methods of billing in relation to the group water sector. Any suggestion that the Local Authority, as the Water Authority for the group schemes, could be billed by Irish Water for the water supplied to the group scheme and that the local authority would then collect the charges from the group scheme sector would be totally unacceptable to the local authority, and not sustainable. The situation in County Leitrim is quite different to most other Counties; the water infrastructure was built in this County on the back of the group water scheme sector. Historically there was no funding for regional schemes and so regional schemes were provided by subventing group schemes to ensure that the size of their water mains were increased in order to allow for other group schemes to connect to the original scheme. Working in co-operation with the voluntary group water scheme sector, potable water was delivered to every parish in the County. In a number of cases the group schemes were much larger than the public scheme. Because of the origins of many of the group schemes, the fact that they are all served with public water and the very real difficulty that the changeover to Irish Water will cause them, it was felt that an opportunity should be offered to allow for the takeover of such schemes before 2014. In most other Counties such schemes would already be public schemes. The fundamental requirements for taking in charge are that two thirds of the members on a scheme wish to have the group scheme taken into public charge and that agreement is reached with the Council in relation to any outstanding charges. While Leitrim County Council has contacted all of the group water schemes, there are only 10 to 15 schemes actively working with us to meet the deadline of the end of the year. After the 1st of January, Irish Water will decide whether a group scheme is taken over by them and on what conditions. In 2014 the Council will not be in a position to assist group water schemes in either leak detection or repair as it is unlikely that the service level agreement will allow for this. The setting of water charges will be a matter for Irish Water, the Regulator, and the Commission for Energy Regulation.
RESPONDING:
Councillor Sinead Guckian welcomed the detailed reply from the Director of Services but again, expressed her disappointment that the Council had not received any further information or clarity from the Government Department, to the many questions members had raised with regard to the status of Group Water Schemes, served by the public water mains, come January 2014 and the pending takeover of the public network by Irish Water/ Bord Gais.
Cllr Guckian outlined that Leitrim Councillors have been seeking clarification since early this year with regard to how Group Water Schemes served by a public mains water supply will be billed, how will they be assisted if there are problems on the scheme and if members on these schemes will be expected to become voluntary collectors for the State, expected to collect the water charges from their members, calculate the breakdown of costs to each house based on a bulk meter reading for their whole scheme. There also are a number of questions unanswered with regard to how, following the takeover of Irish Water / Bord Gais, will Group Water Schemes that are served by the Public Water Mains apply to be taken incharge and become part of the public network.
Cllr Guckian welcomed the support of all members during the debate and expressed the urgency of this issue being addressed.
Cllr Guckian complimented the Council for their work over the past 3 months, in particular, in working with Group Schemes and advising them of the pending changes. She also highlighted the fact that, given the number of questions outstanding on the pending change to Bord Gais, group schemes can’t be expected to make informed decisions when only part of the information is being made available to them by central Government.
Question in the name of Councillor Sinead Guckian 7/10/2013
At the October meeting of Leitrim County Council, I ask the Director of Services, Planning, Community and Economic Development to commence a new initiative of creating a Film Commission Body within the Council. The aim of this group would be to highlight and promote the potential of Leitrim’s landscape, architecture, period villages and stunning scenery for film and TV locations, while streamlining the process for film-makers too re permitting etc. Given the wonderful promotion of the County recently through the production of “Black Ice”, written and directed by Johnny Gogan, filmed on location in Dromahair, and the expected media attention when Ken Loach‘s next movie “Jimmy’s Hall” is released, which is currently being filmed in the County, the Council should create a mechanism to attract more Film Companies to use Leitrim as a location for Film Production. We already have a wealth of film industry professionals living and working within the County that may be interested in participating in the formation of this new film commission group.
REPLY:
The current Leitrim County Council Arts Plan has as an objective to ‘Work with Cinema Northwest, Screen Northwest and Leitrim Tourism to develop leitrimfilm.ie as a portal for filmmakers so that they can access information about the county, the services and supports available to filmmakers, and local and national opportunities available to the sector’. This work has already commenced. The layout of the website has been designed in collaboration with Screen Northwest and much of the material compiled. As well as providing information, it states the key point that Leitrim County Council will endeavour to ensure that making a film in the County is a simple, practical and hassle-free experience. The Arts Office already provides a key role in this regard – most recently working with the production team of ‘Jimmy’s Hall’, promoting services and locations within Leitrim, and facilitating contact between the production team and the various Council services – Roads, Fire, Area Offices etc. which were vital to the production. In addition the initiative is also intended to be a welcome to emerging and established members of the film industry who would like to become part of the burgeoning community of filmmakers who have chosen to make Leitrim their home.
RESPONDING:
Councillor Sinead Guckian welcome all the progress to date and complimented all stakeholders for this great initiative.
Question in the Name of Councillor Sinead Guckian 7/10/2013
At the October meeting of Leitrim County Council, I ask the Director of Services, Infrastructure to meet again with residents in Jamestown, who, although they reside in quite close proximity to the sewerage treatment plant for the village, their houses are not connected to it. It is my understanding that there are only four houses in total not yet connected although they are the nearest houses to the plant that services the village.
REPLY:
The Water Services Section of Leitrim County Council is available to meet with the residents in question at any time. There is however currently no funding available to extend the public sewer at this location. A group sewerage scheme may be possible but only one such scheme received funding in 2013 and Leitrim County Council has had no indication that grant funding will be available in the future. It is also unclear whether or not the Council will have any role in relation to such grants after Irish Water take charge of the water and waste water infrastructure in January 2014.
RESPONDING:
Cllr Guckian expressed her concern, that once again the Council is restricted by the lack of clarity from the proposed Irish Water take over.
