Call for Reverse of Decision to Abolish funding for L.I.S. Schemes

Mon, 2 Apr 2012 09:38:45 +0100

At the March meeting of Leitrim County Council, I asked for the support of all Council 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. Many families throughout the county are being affected by this unfair decision.

Cllr Guckian outlined to members that despite the very challenging economic times the previous Fianna Fáil Government retained funding for the LIS so that people could at least see a chance of getting their road being maintained. This is no longer the case, since the whole scheme was abolished by the current Government.

Cllr Guckian advised that it was her understanding that this is the 2nd time that a Fine Gael /labour government had just closed this scheme isolating rural people.

It is unacceptable that rural residents, who pay the same car tax as others, have now been advised that there is no budget to maintain the non-public roads in their areas.

Cllr Guckian called for the support of all the members and all rural organisations in lobbying the Minister to reverse his decision.

Cllr Guckian referred to Minister Varadkars letter, in the Councils correspondence and expressed her anger at the Ministers suggestion that the local authority could offer funding from their own resources, she outlined that this was an "non solution" considering the severe cuts the Minister and his Government had made to the Councils own funding and his suggestion shows a lack of understanding of the severity and how rural counties are financed.

Cllr Guckian, in appealing to members for support, highlighted that all these drastic alterations in the Governments policies that effect rural living would be detrimental to our rural culture and way of life, forcing a change in our culture and heritage.

The Director of Services advised that there were 193 LIS schemes in the County that had hoped to be funded.

Cllr Guckian welcomed the commitment from the Government party members to discuss this matter again with the Minister with a view to re-instating some level of funding. Her motion was passed and the request will be forwarded to the Minister to reverse his decision.

I also asked the Director of Services, Infrastructure how many LIS (Local Improvement Scheme) applicants from Leitrim have been left waiting following the abolition of the Scheme by the Fine Gael/ Labour Government in Budget 2012 and what was the proposed details and estimated cost of same.

REPLY: There were 193 applications for Local Improvement Schemes when the overall scheme was suspended. Leitrim County Council only prepares detailed cost estimates for individual schemes when they are about to start and as a result cannot accurately estimate the total cost of the 193 applications on hands. The average cost of the schemes for the last three years was EUR24,000.

Bank of America, Carrick on Shannon

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 23:04:06 +0100

Cllr Guckian calls for immediate meeting with the Bank of America, the IDA, the Minister of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, Enterprise Ireland and Leitrim County Council.

It was with great shock, yesterday I read that a company spokesman said Bank of America was weighing its options regarding the UK and Ireland businesses with a view to shedding these international credit card business so they could be focus on their core operations in the United States. This decision has serious implications for the County of Leitrim and its surrounds.

From news reports, I believe the Government has written to Bank of America seeking clarification on their intentions and I would ask the Minister to participate in an immediate meeting with the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Leitrim County Council to safeguard the future of the jobs in Carrick on Shannon.

MBNA/Bank of America, since its arrival in 1997, apart from being the largest employer in the area, has played a significant role in both the social and economic fabric of not just County Leitrim but also the whole region. This announcement is extremely worrying and all parties, state agencies and government must meet immediately and work to ensure that a buyer for the credit card business in Carrick on Shannon, is secured.

Road Signage in Drumsna

Mon, 9 May 2011 15:42:02 +0100

I ask the Director of Services, Infrastructure to ensure that the excessive and inappropriately large road signage within the village of Drumsna be removed.

REPLY:-At present the NRA are carrying out a National Network Re-signing project on all National routes and are currently working on the N4 in Leitrim. The aim of this signage scheme is to standardize direction signage across the county, in response to legitimate criticism of substandard and inconsistent road signage in different counties. As part of this project the signs in Drumsna to and from the National road are being revised. These revisions will have the effect of reducing the size of the largest sign face on the Green area in the village from 8.58 sq. mts. to 3.3 sq. mts. A list of all of the proposed Sign changes in the village, which indicates the sizes of the proposed and the existing sign faces, and also included is a layout map showing their location can be made available to the Councillor.

Response by Cllr Sinead Guckian to the reply ; Having looked at the proposed New plan of additional N4 signage for Drumsna, it is evident to me that this is excessive, inappropriate and a waste of tax payers money. The real "inconsistency" here is the fact that no other N4 adjacent village has the same excessive amount of signs.

Less than 24 months ago, the Council introduced a number of additional new N4 signs in the fair green area of Drumsna, at this time I questioned this action, as previously the Drumsna Development Association, the tidy towns committee within the village, had already requested the Council to remove the excessive N4 signage on Fairgreen. This had been highlighted as inappropriate in Tidy towns reports. While it can take up to two years to get a finger board sign indicating the direction to "Effernagh", "Eslin" or "Keshcarrigan" and that's if there's a budget ! there seems to be no limit to the funds or the speed to which you can have signs saying "N4", this is not right or acceptable.

The Council proceeded with the"N4" signage 24 months ago, regardless of the objections and now we find that on top of that program of signage, the NRA are introducing even more signs.

The proposed signage, which will all indicate either "N4 Dublin" or "N4 Carrick" is a waste of money and an eye sore in our quant village and an insult to all the voluntary members of our community who work so hard to make Drumsna an attractive place to live in and visit. The plan for the new NRA signage in Drumsna is extremely excessive and there are not as many signs on the new M4 \M50 Junction at Dublin. Drumsna is not a large motor way junction or a large roundabout, it is a village and no other village in Leitrim along the N4 has as many N4 signs as Drumsna currently has, never mind how many are now proposed.

I am calling on the support of the members in having this plan of signage revisited with a view to reducing the amounts to be erected and removing the large 8mtsq sign on fairgreen. I also look for the support of the members in calling on the NRA to make better use of their budget and to provide public lighting on the slip road junctions at Drumsna and Jamestown, as per by my many motions calling for same over the past number of years to no avail. These two junctions off the N4 are the only two villages on this national primary route that do not have public lighting and by providing funding for this lighting they could ensure safer junctions.

design of the new ramps erected in St Patrick's Park Carrick on Shannon

Mon, 4 Apr 2011 21:50:24 +0100

Question 25: At the April meeting of Leitrim County Council I will ask the Director of Services, Roads and Infrastructure to request the Roads Design Department to revisit the design of the new ramps erected in St Patrick's Park Carrick on Shannon, with a view to ensuring that the ramps are rebuilt to an adequate height to address the speeding in the area. The current structures are not appropriate for their intended function.

REPLY: The ramps at St Patricks Park will be revisited with a view to addressing the concerns raised in the Councillors question.

Response by Cllr Sinead Guckian Cllr Sinead Guckian welcomed the report that the issues would be addressed and requested that this would be done without de

re-aligning the junction at the Bridge in Jamestown

Mon, 4 Apr 2011 21:47:32 +0100

QUESTIONS 24; AT the April meeting of Leitrim County Council I will ask the Director of Services, Roads and Infrastructure to investigate the possibility of re-aligning the junction at the Bridge in Jamestown, connecting to the Rue Road. It has been brought to my attention that vehicles exiting and entering the Rue road are not stopping at the junction with the bridge and the current alignment of the same encourages the vehicles to travel straight off (or onto) the Rue road when travelling across the bridge. While speed is of course a factor in this situation, the limited width of the Rue road means that no matter what speed a large vehicle is exiting and entering the road, the alignment of the junction lends itself to encouraging vehicles to continue straight ahead across the road without stopping.

REPLY: "The re-alignment of the junction at Jamestown Bridge would need significant funding which is not presently available. The junction could be considered for a possible future Low Cost Safety Scheme, to improve road markings and road signs, but it must be pointed out that this junction is located within a 50KM Speed Limit and if the speed limit is adhered to, there should be no problems at this junction".

Response by Cllr Sinead Guckian.

Cllr Sinead Guckian requested that a "low cost safety scheme" would be applied for with a view to addressing the safety concerns at this junction. Cllr Guckian also outlined that whether the speed limit is being adhered to or not does not alter the fact that the road is too narrow for two cars to pass safely on