This article is from page 29 of the 2008-03-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
TOWN Engineer Tom Tiernan has admitted he did not honour his com- mitment to residents of Fergus Park affected by a leaking sewage line.
Speaking at Thursday’s meeting of Ennis Town Council Mr Tiernan said the project to repair and upgrade the system had been allowed to “slip through the cracks”.
He stated that the location of a manhole on privately owned prop- erty had imposed extra difficulty on carrying out the work.
Since March 2001, residents in Fer- gus Park have been plagued annually by sewage leaking into gardens in the area.
Independent councillor Frankie Neylon called for assurances to be given to residents that a solution be found and that upgrade work begin as soon as possible.
He said the delay raised questions about the commitment of the council in dealing with such problems.
He said, “Since March 8, 2001, people in Fergus Park have been dealing with a problem. It was rec-
ognised at the time by the town en- gineer and yet nothing has been done with it. I would be asking the town manager to give an assurance to the people of Fergus Park that the work will be done. Sewage has been com- ing up out of people’s gardens for seven years.
“I’m disappointed that assurances given weren’t lived up to. If that’s the way the council operates then we have to take a look at ourselves. If it takes 12 months to do now, then even that would be short enough.”
Town manager Tom Coughlan said
he had not been made aware that he would have to give assurances and that he didn’t know the full facts of the matter.
Mr Tiernan admitted that he hadn’t followed through on assurances giv- en when the problem first surfaced.
He said “I did give a commitment at the time that I would endeavor to find a solution… I did not honour my commitment. The project slipped thorough the cracks. In cases like this we do endeavor to resolve them as speedily as possible, but these things do happen from time to time.”