‘It’s crazy stuff,’ says councillor as Mayo Council staff prevented from rebuilding storm-damaged wall
Due to health and safety regulations, council staff have been prevented from rebuilding a wall knocked down during Storm Éowyn, according to Castlebar councillor Ger Deere.
The wall, located between the Mayo University Hospital car park and the council office chambers, remains unrepaired with fencing around it nine months later.
Cllr Deere told the latest meeting of Mayo County Council that staff were initially set to repair the wall, with blocks and cement already purchased.
However, before work could begin, they were informed that an outside contractor would have to complete the job due to health and safety regulations.
“It’s around 200 blocks. I’d build it in a couple of hours myself. It's nine months now, and we still have to get a contractor in to do it,” he said.
“That is just one example of where we are wasting money,” he said, adding that it is systematic of the way things are being handled in the council.
Cllr Deere revealed that the contractor employed to repair the wall also carries out repairs to council houses in Castlebar and across Mayo.
“This contractor is doing work for the council in housing. I believe the cement bought [for the wall] has now gone hard in the yard,” he said.
“We are waiting to get house repairs done, and yet they have to go and rebuild this wall, which council staff have built several walls in the past. The whole system has gone crazy,” Cllr Deere told MidWest Radio earlier this week.
“I can understand health and safety, you have to do everything right, but when [council workers] have done this type of work before, and it's not a big job, less than 200 blocks to be laid,” he added.
Such situations, Cllr Deere said, directly create delays and waste council resources.
He pointed out that while people are waiting for contractors to repair their homes, council staff are being sent to jobs like this that could easily be handled internally.
“It’s crazy stuff,” he said, highlighting the restrictiveness of health and safety when council trade workers could complete the repair works.
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.