LIMERICK City and County Council have been accused of treating the residents of The Hermitage in Corbally in an “appalling way by misleading them and failing to address the major problems with the street surface”.
Limerick Fianna Fail TD Willie O’Dea, has made repeated representations to the local authority on residents’ behalf to have estate taken in charge. He has also called for the Council to carry out remedial works on the potholed street surface which he claims is “one of the worst road surfaces I have seen in Limerick City”.
“In early August, the Council finally confirmed that they had secured funding and that works on the estate would commence within a month. Then last week, after I pressed them on the fact that no contractor had yet commenced the works, they told me they haven’t actually appointed a contractor and that instead of having the works done in September, they could only hope to have the roadworks in the Hermitage completed by the end of the year,” Deputy O’Dea told the Limerick Post.
“This is disgraceful treatment by the Council of the residents of The Hermitage who have waited years for these works to be carried out and are now being messed around again.”
Deputy O’Dea insists that the Council need to take a more expedient approach to dealing with this issue as the residents have been more than patient.
“There is also the potential for serious accidents to occur unless something is done to deal with the appalling state of the street surface in the Hermitage Estate. The residents are paying their Property Tax, which is supposed to go towards delivering services like adequate road surfaces. How can the Council justify taking property tax off these people and then not provide them with even the most basic of services?” he asked.
A council spokesman said they were aware of the issues relating to the road surface in The Heritage and funding had been allocated with work due to begin in the coming weeks.
“It has been brought to the council’s attention that separate utility works are scheduled to take place in the locality shortly, so in an effort to minimise the disruption caused to residents, we are hoping the works can be carried out simultaneously.”
by Alan Jacques
