Kilbarrack community 'let down' as playground delay branded a 'sh**show'
The delayed delivery of fencing around Kilbarrack Playground has been blasted as “a sh**show” by a local councillor.
Chairperson Councillor Daryl Barron struggled to keep his cool at the latest North Central Area Committee meeting following news that enhancement and replacement of railings in Kilbarrack Playground had been delayed. While discretion funds had been set aside to complete the work in 2025, Parks Superintendent Fergus O’Carroll explained that a plan to reuse fencing turned out not to be “practical or deliverable.”
“If we are to buy fencing we will have to make provision in the improvement programme for the year,” he said. As a project that was “supposed to be delivered by the end of November,” Cllr Barron said he had already given prior commitment to the local community that work would be finished last year. “This is a running cycle, Kilbarrack has been let down consistently,” he stated.
He said “chicken wire fencing” was installed several years ago “with holes in it” that pose a serious threat to local children. ”It’s a very busy road and if a child dies someone in the city council is accountable to that, plain and simple,” he said.
Cllr Barron said he finds the delay “perplexing” and stressed there is huge frustration locally. “People are going to resign from residents’ associations in Kilbarrack because they are sick to the teeth of this,” he said.
Likening the issue to a soap opera, Cllr Barron said “it’s like turning on Fair City every night” and believes someone from the council must be held accountable. “I’ve been banging on this drum for a long time,” he said.
“Any project should be delivered within timescales. I’m sick of certain projects being left to one side day in and day out. This is an issue that needs to be dealt with. I don’t want this done in Q2. If I hear another Q2 or Q3 I'm going to go bloody bananas. We just need to get this done.”
Cllr Barron said the Kilbarrack Playground delay represents a bigger problem within the council where “certain projects are not getting done” and are simply “rolling on to another year.” “It’s getting very annoying that stuff is constantly left on the backburner, if contractors are willing to do the work, get them done,” he said.
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