Council relying on volunteers for crucial work due to low staffing levels

Councillors throughout Cork County Council's western division raised concern about the expectations being put on volunteers, such as tidy towns groups

Volunteer groups, such as Tidy Towns committees, are being relied on for crucial work due to low staff levels, Cork councillors say. File Picture: Jim Wilson

Outdoor staff numbers in Cork County Council’s Western Division have dropped so low that volunteers for local tidy towns groups are being relied on to carry out the duties of council workers, claim local councillors.

Speaking at the Western Division’s June monthly meeting, Fianna Fáil councillor Joe Carroll said: “We have situations in the municipal meetings where the amenity grants seem to be giving money to tidy towns, a bunch of retired people, to do our council work around town that I am — and I think most of my colleagues are — very much against.

“The tidy towns are a group of people in each town and village who enhance their area and they will do that but they should not be asked to do the council work.” 

He added: “I’ve seen Skibbereen tidy towns going along the bypass with hoes, and they are hoeing weeds off the footpaths; that’s not their work at all, that’s the work of the council. 

"There’s a couple of parks there in town and the grass is gone too high for cutting and we have a mower above in the council yard, this business will have to stop and it’s expected that the tidy towns will do this.

“They are good workers these tidy towns people and community council workers, but we must not depend on them to do council work."

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Dunmanway-based Deirdre Kelly said that there were no longer any permanent council staff based in Ballineen and Enniskeane.

“From speaking to the tidy towns I am aware that for the past few years they have been replacing all the public seating throughout the town and public seating that has been ordered for this year will now have to be cancelled because the resources aren’t there to pay for it and it’s so unfair and inappropriate for a committee that has been working so hard with limited resources to begin with,” she said.

Cllr Kevin Murphy said that in Kinsale there were serious staff shortages.

“At numerous meetings in County Hall, year-in and year-out work placement deficiencies and the low number of workers we have in the county itself have been brought up, and I’m blue-in-the-face bringing it up. 

"The chief executive always dismisses us out of sight, it’s not for discussion and effectively he doesn’t entertain us bringing up anything to do with personnel. Something has got to change as far as I’m concerned.” 

Western Division manager Clodagh Henehan said that the allocation of resources for staff should be addressed in the annual budget agreed by councillors.

“Anything to do with additional resources required on the ground or required to spend is something that needs to be addressed through the budgetary process and this is a very good time to raise this matter because we are in the process of preparing for the budget. Additional staffing requirements have to come through that process.”