'Dead and buried' - Rural Kilkenny people won't ever see road improvements say councillors

A list of roads waiting for works under one local authority scheme is so long that some of the applicants will be “dead and buried” before their roads reach the top of the list councillors have warned.

“So will we!” was the response of Cllr Mary Hilda Cavanagh to her colleague Cllr Pat Fitzpatrick when he made the observation at the July meeting of the Castlecomer Municipal District councillors.

The councillors were discussing the need for funding and clarity on two schemes for works on smaller, community roads - the LIS and CIS schemes.
The meeting was informed by area engineer, Philippe Beubry, that there are nearly 70 applications for CIS (Community Involvement Scheme) funding - but this year only three will be accepted.

It was this rate of acceptance that prompted Cllr Fitzpatrick to make his comment.
Cllr Fitzpatrick called on the government to make a special funding arrangement, a once-off injection of funds, to bring down that waiting list. In comparison, he said, they had made “huge progress” on applications under the LIS (Local Improvement Scheme), for which he thanked Mr Beubry and the council staff.

Rules Clarification
Both the schemes were raised at the meeting by Cllr Cavanagh, who called for the conditions of each scheme to be provided to the next meeting in writing.

She explained this is because many people who have benefited from the funding on their roads and lanes do not understand the scheme.

People who made a contribution to have their lane tarmaced ‘20 or 30 years ago’ can’t understand why, in recent times, nothing more was done. They thought the schemes made the roads county council responsibility.

“I told people they have to fill out a Community Involvement Scheme form, but they didn’t believe me!” she remarked.

Referring to the LIS, she said this, too, needs clarification, even for councillors.
The scheme had recently been raised in the Senate, Cllr Cavanagh pointed out, and Minister Ossian Smith had referred to the discretion of local authorities in making decisions. She said she was unaware of this discretion in qualifying for the scheme.

Cllr John Brennan said changes had also been made to conditions in relation to the number of adjoining landowners that were needed to apply and rules concerning herd numbers used for applications.
He criticised the Department for introducing a rule saying one of the houses on a candidate road or lane must be on ‘a hectare’ of land. That’s nearly three acres, he said in disbelief.

Because of this change a number of applications had been “pushed into cold storage,” and a decision could not be made on funding, he said.
Cllr Brennan said he thinks the department have ‘copped out’ and should have made clear the ‘hectare of land’ rule does not apply.

“Some of these wordsmiths in the department don’t know the difference between acre and hectare,” Cllr Fitzpatrick said. Families trying to build a home “would want to be flush” to have a hectare of land, they were lucky to have a half acre, he said.

Cllr Cavanagh said they must get clarification on all these issues and proposed they write to the department. She received unanimous backing from her municipal district colleagues for this

If they receive a response to say the minister is right about the local authority having discretion in deciding regulations for the two schemes, Cllr Cavanagh said she will propose home-owners who apply will not need a hectare of land.

Cllr Fitzpatrick said he agreed with Cllr Cavanagh on how some people view the schemes and written clarification of the regulations would be good, not only for the councillors, but for democracy as well.
Director of Services Martin Prendiville said he will come back to the councillors with any reply.