Council to take on the upkeep of 130 estates

Thousands of householders in Co Cork are to have a number of services in their estates taken over by Cork County Council.

The local authority is today advertising its intention to take official responsibility for the upkeep of roads, footpaths, and lighting in nearly 130 estates, many of which are up to 30 years old.

The estates are dotted all over Cork and one on the list is Rockboro Heights, Carrigaline, where Deborah Lonergan has lived for the past 12 years.

“The estate itself is around 25 years old and some of the original residents are still here. I wouldn’t say it’s in complete disrepair, because it isn’t. But we do have problems,” she said.

“Some of our footpaths need upgrading, there’s a crack in a wall by a green. We have potholes on the road and there is subsidence at the entrance to the estate. Now when we need something done at least we can ring the county council.”

Cllr Seamus McGrath (FF), who has been particularly vocal in trying to get private estates taken in charge by the council, said he welcomed the news.

“This is a very significant day for tens of thousands of residents who had been left in a limbo situation for many years. I have raised this issue countless times at council meetings over the years. Huge numbers of residents were living in older estates where nobody was available to carry out essential tasks, such as, pothole filling, unblocking drains, repairing faulty public lights, upgrading damaged footpaths and so on.”

He said that after many years of “ignoring this ticking timebomb,” the local authority has now “taken a decisive step forward”.

However, he said he was somewhat disappointed that councillors did not have the opportunity to examine the list before it was published.

Council engineers embarked more than a year ago on surveying estates in the county and drew up a long list of those which could be taken over.

“Council officials came to a [council] development committee meeting last July and said they’d looked at 573 estates. They then told us that 372 would be taken in charge,” Cllr McGrath said. “I have already noticed a number of omissions from the [original] list and some residents will be very disappointed.

“I sincerely hope that the council will be prepared to publish a second round of estates in the near future.

“Also, we now need to put a proper system in place for the future to ensure that estates are taken in charge within a reasonable timeframe,” he said.

Maps of the areas to be taken over will be made available at County Hall and council offices in Mallow and Skibbereen until Dec 16. Anybody wishing to make objections or representations to the proposals has until Jan 10 to do so.