A Limerick woman is leading by example in trying to tackle a growing national problem of how ordinary people are being forced, at their own expense, to maintain housing estates. It’s a problem that is sweeping across the country because local authorities are failing to take the areas in charge for various reasons, and because developers have gone bust. Lavinia McNamara, a resident in Abbeylock, Corbally, which was built 18 years ago, decided enough was enough,
and called to her 63 neighbours to organise a volunteer clean up of the estate, which had become overgrown with grass, trees and bushes.
“I was told I would be fighting a losing battle, but I said I’d give it a shot. So, I knocked on doors and asked for signatures. So, I started a residents committee. Our area started to get run down so, we set out to clean it ourselves,” Ms McNamara explained.
Residents agreed that while the council has cut grass in the estate from time to time, it hadn’t collected it.
Also, there are no playground facilities for children, only a tarmac square in the middle of a field.
From the smallest children to an 82-year old man, residents took their shovels, rakes, lawnmowers, and chainsaws, to transform the estate into one of the tidiest in Limerick.
“It was hard work but it’s fantastic to see everyone out cleaning up the estate. We’ve dealt with a lot of areas, which had been very overgrown. We’ve cut down branches, overgrown nettles, trees. We’ve collected rubbish, broken chairs etc. We collected over 45 bags in one area alone,” added Ms McNamara.
She also visited the city’s Mayor who provided them with gloves, plastic bags, and litter grabbers for the big clean up.
Mayor Jim Long, said: “We’re cutting the grass as a goodwill gesture. We’re looking at taking the estate in charge but it may take up to nine months because a number of strict criteria must be signed off before we can do that”.
However, Ms McNamara isn’t stopping just there, and added: “So, the next thing is to get a grant for bins into the area and a tennis court so that, the children will come out and play in an area that has been provided for them”.
