Conditions of roads in ‘disgraceful’ New Ross estates raised for the ninth meeting in succession

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Never one to be accused of going quietly into the night, Councillor Michael Sheehan has, for the ninth district meeting in a row, asked why the Parkfield estate in New Ross has not been taken in charge (TIC) by the council. Under the TIC programme, the local authority assumes responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of public areas, roads, and infrastructure within a housing development.

However, despite Cllr Sheehan’s repeated queries, Parkfield has yet to be taken in charge by Wexford County Council (WCC).

“Can we write to the chief executive to find out what’s happening with the TIC scheme for Parkfield?” he asked at the July meeting of the New Ross Municipal District (NRMD). “This is my ninth meeting in succession raising it. I’ve met with several residents in different estates over the last couple of weeks and the conditions of the roads in each of them are a disgrace.”

Frustrated by the lack of progress in these urban estates, Cllr Sheehan suggested that the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS), which primarily focuses on rural areas, could be expanded to include roads in New Ross. This did not sit well with Cllr Marty Murphy who was quick to protect a programme which has benefitted those in his constituency.

"The LIS should be kept for the local areas and not in the town,” he said.

Returning to Parkfield, Cllr Sheehan said it, and other town estates, were not receiving the funding required for improvements.

“There’s two reasons why these roads are in such an appalling state: the money is not there, and when it is there it’s going in the wrong areas. We need to get this money back into the town because there are several estates, all of which have been TIC, which need to be rectified. If not, we’re going to have serious issues in a couple of years.”

"There’s been a number of roads done in the town over the past few years,” replied area engineer, David Murphy. “We only get funding to do approximately 20km of roads annually.”

It was then left to director of services Eamonn Hore to provide an explanation as to why Parkfield continued to pop up on the agenda on a monthly basis.

"I’ll discuss this with the chief executive but the issue could be the €250,000 required for the footpaths,” he said.