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mestores celebrating 100 years see inside Follow us on Facebook ISSUE 96
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OLD PEOPLE’S COUNCIL MEETS
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053 9123527 www.thechronicle.ie
Jan. 17th 2018
Tony still RURAL a crowd-puller AREAS CASH GOES TO ticket fiasco AS TOWN FOOTPATHS CRUMBLE otest fears
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exford Co. Council is to turn the focus the affair centre So it was back either on a ticket of townthe following or Wexford no fireworks, Wexfordan admission that work onLarkin streets District Director Tony and in at thetheir town may told footpaths councillors October meeting. alsothe revealed have sufferedHe since abolithat the Council had a very tion of the Corporation with goodnew working relationshiplocal the amalgamated with the Festival Opera and authority concentrating more recognisedontherural massive con-in resources villages tribution the Borough festival made to the Wexford District. theThere local economy. has been concern It appears that the desire for some time about the to state preserve this relationship of the town’s footpaths with meant that council officials several areas including Rowe were reluctant to hang festival Street, John’s Gate Street and bosses out to dry on the matGeorge Street in addition to ter. The result was that counKing Street highlighted repeatcillors got the blame and they edly as their locations vented angerwhere over people the are falling on broken footpaths issue this week. and uneven streets. Councillors Anthony Kelly andCllr. Lisa McDonald, Davy Hynes led the who has raised concerns the charge. Kelly said theover organstate of ‘created footpathsa fiasco’ in Rowe isers had Street where she a busiover the tickets andhas Hynes ness, on the several occasions, slammed fact that councilbrought matter to theon atlors werethe never consulted tention of officials again at the the matter and he described it January meeting theforBorwas a ‘slap in the of face’ publicDistrict representatives. ough Council. District Director for Wex-
It may be many years since he was a big star of Wexford hurling but Tony Doran demonstrated this week that he is still a crowd puller when a big
Cllr. Frank Staples said councillors should have been informed of the situation. ‘As councillors were are expected to know what is going on’, he declared. Cllr. Ger Carthy revealed that there had been problems meeting all the licencing conditions in previous years and on one occasion everything had not been sorted out until the 11th hour. Cllr. Lisa McDonald described the whole affair as a PR disaster but she appealed to everyone to allow children enjoy the event on closing ford, Tonystay Larkin, accepted night and away rather there needed to be a than cause difficulties. greater concentration on issued the urban Mayor Jim Moore a area. He said a lot of work similar plea calling for no had been carried rural villagnastiness so out thatinpeople could es andthe thefamily same type of work enjoy occasion that now to be carried out in is theneeded fireworks. the town centre. Director of Services Tony Several rural areas the have Larkin said he believed seen impressive ticketing would new be a footpaths once off solution andover would becoureconstructed thenot past peated in 2018. ple of years while at the same time many urban footpaths
Main Street work may Opening Hours: start STATION before Christmas Open 7 days 7am - 10pm SERVICE Phone - 053 9145082
Newline Road, Wexford or 087 9197865 After years of District Council that complaints action is to be retexturing of the surface taken to deal with the and the replacement of problem of Wexford Main some of the gullies, Street’s slippery surface. particularly in North There have been Main Street is planned. complaints for years The plan has not yet about people suffering been finalised but it could injuries on the street but start very soon and is there has never been an likely to take place before acceptance that there is Christmas. Gold City with the any problem Council officials are Blend surface.40kg Now, however, anxious to avoid any Bag workonly to tackle the issue disruption of the retail may begin before trade and plan to €14.50 Christmas. undertake the work either District Director Tony in the evening or with a Larkin told the October 5.30aminstart each Loyalty Card available store! This offer not run in conjunction with other fuel offers meeting of does the Municipal morning.
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have fallen into disrepair. Some councillors have suggested that paths have been Above:Tony built where there are no people shares a joke to walk on them while those with Ali footfall in the town with a huge Pendergast,The centre are cracking up. Ballagh. Right: But Cllr. Ger Carthy objectyoung ed Tony to any with suggestion that monRuthfrom rural ey supporter would be taken areas to repair urban footpaths Fenlon and roads. ‘The people in the country pay their road tax as
attendance showed up in the Riverside park Hotel in Enniscorthy on Monday night for the launch of his autobiography 'A Land of Men and Giants
As people stumble and fall on crumbling footpaths in Wexford town rural areas are witnessing the arrival of impressive new footpaths, some of which are built along country roads. Two of the rural areas to benefit are Ballycogley (above), where Cllr. Frank Staples is the local representative and Barntown (left) home to Cllr. Tony Dempsey.
well’, he said. Mr Larkin said he was not suggesting taking money from
rural areas to spend in the town but there was a need to concentrate on upgrading and im-
proving town centre roads and footpaths.
ONE IN FOUR REFUSE COUNCIL HOUSE
D
espite the long waiting lists for social housing and the massive campaign to get the government to increase supply one in four families offered a home by Wexford Co. Council turned it down. Councillors in Gorey, who were provided with the information at their January meeting, were surprised by the rate of houses being refused. Cllr. Joe Sullivan said he could not understand why three individuals had turned down an offer of a home in a new estate in the town and Cllr. Anthony Donohoe pointed out that the refusals were increasing the length of time it took to re-let houses. Last year a total of three hun-
dred and nine families were provided with homes by the Council under various headings but a further 96 refused offers. Only 28 of the refusals were deemed reasonable by the local authority. Head of Housing Padraig O’Gorman told councillors that the Council was on track to meet its targets on housing but said more land would have to be acquired in North Wexford to facilitate the programme into the future. Meanwhile, a big increase in applications for private housing in the area is set to deliver more than two hundred housing units to Council in the medium term.