Roads in unfinished estates taken in charge but ‘still a lot to do’

Four roads in housing estates in the Boyle Municipal District have been taken in charge by Roscommon County Council. However, local councillors believe there is a lot more work to be done in relation to other estates as they continue to deal with the legacy of the Celtic Tiger years.

The roads recently declared public roads are Esker Grove North, Cootehall; Esker Grove South, Cootehall; Forest Park Manor, Boyle and River Oaks, Ballinagare.

Councillors also heard at a recent MD meeting that North Roscommon has the most unfinished estates with costs in the region of €500,000 to finish some of them.

Cathaoirleach of the MD Cllr Sean Moylan said the Cootehall estate had been a long term problem and welcomed the development.

He also said the news regarding Forest Park Manor was “fantastic”.

He stated the people in the Ballinagare estate had been through a lot and this would provide them with the opportunity to get a residents group together.

He highlighted other estates in Tulsk and Strokestown. “This has been a huge problem since the last election.”

Cllr Micheál Frain also noted that this was an issue left to local authorities following the boom years and “hopefully this is the start of something, long may it continue.”

Cllr Valerie Byrne said the development was “a long time coming. The north of the county has been left to last. There is still a lot of work to do. This a legacy issue from the Tiger years. There are about 75 unfinished estates in the county and 58 are in the Boyle MD area. Some are 10 to 15 years without basic services such as lights and green areas. This brings renewed hope.”

“As councillors we will continue to highlight it,” Cllr Liam Callaghan stated.

Cllr Leah Cull thanked all the council staff involved for their hard work, which was reiterated by all the councillors.

“The residents in Cootehall will be delighted,” she added.

Cllr Moylan further suggested that this issue needed to be looked at when the next budget comes around as “only a very small amount is budgeted for the estates”. “It should be on a pro rata basis,” he added but was informed by the executive that this “might not be that simple.”

Cllr Cull said funding should be sought from the government with Cllr Frain stating that other funding streams need to be investigated.

He stated: “At national level and European level, there are a lot of funding streams that unfortunately are being underspent, and the funding goes back to Europe and in some cases goes back to the national exchequer.

“We’ve also seen recently where there was an underspend in funding through Smart Regions and that money had to be reallocated. It has been really allocated so it’s not wasted, but I think that we have to start looking at things differently and look at funding that’s there and available from the European Commission and going back. I think we need to make the most of all those streams that are out there.”

Director of Finance Sean Mullarkey addressing the members said: “We are working our way through them (unfinished estates).

“There are a couple of estates that would cost half a million euro to do. We got a very detailed list of each and costings. Some are small and easily finished while some need considerable work.”

*Published under the Local Democracy Scheme.