by Alan Jacques
alan@limerickpost.ie
A MULGRAVE Street resident has complained to Limerick City and County Council over what he describes as the widespread neglect of drains around the city centre.
Martin Littler has been in correspondence with the local authority for the past three months about blocked drains near his home. He told the Limerick Post this week that after spotting his local drains were blocked, he began noticing drains in a similar neglected condition in other parts of the city.
“I was wondering if I was the only person who had noticed this? Because it looks like maintenance of these drains has been neglected for a long time,” he claimed.
“Everyone is affected on days when it rains, which is not an infrequent phenomenon in Limerick. Pedestrians have to step out into the traffic stream to avoid getting wet feet and motorists must contend with having to watch for cross-traffic at the same time as avoiding splashing the pedestrians by the roadside waiting to cross,” he explained.
Mr Littler also claims that the council seem oblivious to this problem, and makes out that they do not understand his issue. He even questioned if perhaps, he is being “over-fussy” in considering it a problem at all.
“My wife and I are not originally from Limerick, and perhaps we don’t understand the way of thinking here?
“After my third email to the council, with no apparent attempt to clear the drains, they wrote saying they had cleared the gullies — but the gullies are not the problem. The water has nowhere to go. Last thing I heard, they were referring the matter to an engineer, but I have heard nothing since then, which was last week,” he said.
In response, a spokesman for Limerick City and County Council explained that it operates an annual programme for gully cleaning throughout the city area. The programme includes sucking out each gully pot and jetting out the pipelines down to the manholes. This programme is about to commence again in the next couple of weeks through private contractors working for the council.
“For a variety of reasons, some areas are more affected by others by the build up of grit and silt that chokes the system locally. Limerick City and County Council is reviewing this problem to see if improvements to its programme can be implemented to ensure all areas have an effective system throughout the entire year.”
