This article is from page 11 of the 2007-07-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
A POLICY to charge schools and community groups for water on a metered basis has drawn criticism from councillors.
Clare County Council are replac- ing the fixed water charge currently in place with a new metered system based on the volume of water usage. Domestic houses are excluded from the scheme.
Senior Executive Engineer, Wal-
ter Walshe, told last night’s monthly meeting of Clare County Council that water consumers would be charged a basic fixed water charge and a vol- ume charge where applicable.
He said the council would adopt a “reasonable attitude’ when it came to collecting outstanding charges. Mr Walshe added that many schools in the county had already started to ENA
Mayor of Clare Patricia McCarthy (Ind) also queried the implications
for local authority employees result- ing from Clare County Council’s ex- pansion of the contract to Treatment Systems Ltd, which includes admin- istration as well as fitting water sys- 3 00te
Independent councillor Gerry Flynn suggested that schools and community groups be charged de- pending on the level of water usage and welcomed the non-metering of domestic houses.
Fianna Fail councillor Pat Hayes
said, “In no uncertain terms can this council be seen to be supportive of the charging of schools and volun- tary groups for water.”
Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) expressed concern about the involvement of private companies in the provision of essential service.
“Certainly if you look at the expe- riences of countries like France and England where this has happened, quite frequently it has been appall- That