Residents pay to repair lighting in Westbury

A residents’ group has decided to pay to repair some of the broken lights in one of the largest housing estates in the Mid-West.
Within the last week a number of out-of-order street lights in the sprawling Westbury Housing Estate have been repaired by Airtricity and a private contractor.
Councillor Pascal Fitzgerald has confirmed he is part of a local residents’ group which paid about €300 to repair public lighting in the Paddocks and other parts of the Westbury Estate.
He recalled he also made a number of complaints about broken lights in the estate and organised a petition about outstanding works in the estate, which resulted in separate repairs being carried out by Airtricity.
However, he warned there is still at least eight lights in the overall estate with cable faults.
Councillor Cathal Crowe said he recently asked Westbury residents to forward him details of lights that were not working in the estate.
There was a very positive response to this request and he catalogued and forwarded a list of all relevant pole numbers to Clare County Council.
“An undertaking has also been given to me that a street light in the Clonard part of Westbury, which was hit by a car in the early hours of Tuesday, October 18 last, will now be fully repaired.
The lamp at the top of this pole is completely smashed and there are pieces of glass strewn around the ground,” he said. 
A section of footpath near the entrance to The Moorings, Westbury has also been repaired. Over the years tree roots had forced part of this footpath upwards.
The discrepancy in height made it extremely difficult and hazardous for people pushing buggies and wheelchairs to use the footpath. Last Thursday, hot tar-macadam was used to correct this discrepancy.
Councillor Fitzgerald claimed this footpath was repaired after he informed Clare County Council a woman had fallen over on the footpath a few weeks.
However, he stressed that further repairs still needed to be completed on this footpath to make it safe for pedestrians.
Over the last two years, Councillor Crowe said he found it frustrating at times to have issues in the Westbury estate resolved. A few years ago, it was a case of communicating with the estate’s principal developers but now the jurisdiction of the estate has been complicated with the presence of NAMA, liquidators, receivers and Clare County Council.
“It behoves all agencies and authorities to work together to ensure that the estate is safe and maintained to an appropriate standard,” he said.
Councillor Fitzgerald also confirmed that former Minister for Housing, Willie Penrose, who unexpectedly resigned on Tuesday, hadn’t responded to Clare County Council following Councillor Fitzgerald’s request for a meeting.
Senior executive engineer, Hugh McGrath explained the council was not responsible for any developments in Westbury at the present time.
However, Mr McGrath confirmed the authority was in the process of dealing with the various developments within Westbury.
“Where there is a ‘developer’ or more appropriately a ‘receiver’ or a ‘liquidator’ we are making them aware of their responsibilities as they are made aware to us. Elsewhere we are in the process of calling in the bonds, which we would need to fund any remedial works.
“Until we have a resolution to these processes we are actively involved monitoring the issues,” he said.