Councillors Frustrated By Proliferation Of Tarmac “Blobs”
Ms. Deri Flood, Senior Executive Engineer DCC, spoke to the Southeast Area Committee (SEAC) Meeting held on March 13th, in answer to widespread concern with the unsightly and hazardous states of roads and pavements in many places as a result of works carried out by utilities companies.
Councillors including Cllr Deacy (Soc Dem), Cllr Claire Byrne (Green Party) and Cllr Mary Freehill (Labour) expressed great dissatisfaction with the state of pavements in a number of areas in the Southeast Area and throughout the city, where openings in the road or pavement for works have been closed with the use of rough tarmac “blobs”.
Ms. Flood told councillors that tarmac blobs are temporarily done by individual works by utilities. She said she has a team of nine people for the council “inspecting all such works constantly” and noted that it’s not feasible for the utilities to permanently fix the openings at the same time as they fix the service.
Ms. Flood said the majority of these road openings were the result of “reactive calls” to emergencies such as gas leaks or water mains leaks and telecommunications blackouts or disconnections. Utilities companies have statutory rights to carry out necessary works and must apply for licences online to do so. The licences are issued on the condition that the utilities restore the openings to their original condition and to the standards required.
Ms Flood said DCC does not accept the temporary tarmacadam covering and chases up the utility companies until they reinstate the paths and roads to their original condition. However, DCC does not have the jurisdiction to directly instruct them to carry out the work. Utilities companies schedule the work on reinstatement to footpaths and roads and the council merely instructs them to carry out those works to the required standard. They are required to return the openings to their previous condition within 90 days. If they don’t do that they remain responsible for the openings, so any accidents that take place are their responsibility and the utilities are aware of this. They are also aware of all complaints that come in.
Ms Flood said that in every case where a complaint comes in to the Council about these openings she goes to the utilities and asks what they are going to do about it. In some cases they can reinstate the paths straight away but in some cases they can’t – for example where works are large scale and not yet finished, such as the replacement of lead water pipes in a street. Ms Flood admitted that “it is a mess” with “holes being dug all over the place,” but insisted that DCC is monitoring it.
40% of openings are Irish Water (now Uisce Eireann), 20% are ESB and 12% are gas networks. The remainder are divided between “internal” DCC utilities and the telecommunications companies (telcos). There’s a master plan in place between the Department of Heritage and Local Government and Uisce Eireann to carry out openings in a more timely fashion in line with everybody else. This is due to start in June 2023 and be fully in place by June 2024, and should, Ms. Flood said, “bring an improvement in what you see out in the ground.”
Responding to Ms Flood’s remarks, Cllr Lacey (Lab) called it “quite depressing” because it seems that “All of the balls are in the hands of the utilities.” He said it seems that while the priority of DCC is the safety of the roads and pathways, the work is carried out based on the priorities of the utilities companies which are not the same.
Cllr Byrne (GP) called it a “classic symptom of decentralisation of our services” and said she didn’t understand how “dumping tarmac” is accepted even as an interim solution. She characterised it as a “crazy situation” where utility companies seem to be able to do what they want.
Other councillors expressed frustration as well, including Cllr James Geoghan (FG), who gave an example where he chased up Irish Water for 10 months or more to get a particular pavement reinstatement done properly. He said Irish Water are the main culprits and wondered if they do not have any pride in their work, pointing out that developers don’t leave the place “in an absolute tip.”
Cllr Daniel Céitinn (SF) said that the council doesn’t seem to have enforcement powers to fine companies. “We have to have a stick so we can enforce these standards,” he said.
Cllr Tara Deas (Soc Dem) said that the perception is that DCC should be fixing paths and people come to councillors trying to get them fixed. She also called for DCC to be able to fine utilities who don’t fix openings in a timely fashion.
Responding to councillors, Ms. Flood said tarmacadam is an unsightly but acceptable form of reinstatement, but that it’s not supposed to be there for as long as is the case sometimes. She said DCC does constantly patrol openings, but doesn’t get sight of them unless it gets complaints about them. She pointed out there are 30000 such openings a year and only nine staff patrolling.
Ms Flood said there’s no specific fines for not finishing work early enough or properly, but there is an aggregate deposit scheme limiting the amount of openings annually by utilities. That deposit increases if there are too many openings caused by a utility. DCC does not pay claims on temporary replacement of pavement, she said. Claims are “triaged” to decide who is responsible and the utility will take it on unless there is a dispute and a subsequent court battle as to who is liable. In cases like that, DCC might have to pay some of the claim.
Cllr Lacey suggested that Flood might do a written report on these issues which he felt merited deeper consideration by SEAC.
SEAC Divided On Party Lines Over Motion Calling For Extension Of Ban On Evictions Cllr Pat Dunne (Independents4Change) proposed a motion calling for the extension of the ban on no fault evictions.
He noted the increase in homelessness in the area and said that housing solutions should have been put in place a long time ago. He appealed for councillors from government parties to support the motion. Saying he would not support the motion, Cllr Pat McCartan (FG) said the eviction ban was a short term measure but that the short term benefit of extending the ban would drive out small landlords and worsen the situation.
Responding in support of the motion, Cllr Daniel Céiteann (SF) said that ending the ban is cruel and is putting people out on the street. He said the suggestion that it’s okay now to put people on the street because summer is coming is unconscionable and claimed that thousands of families will be put on the streets without measures to help being in place when the ban ends.
Cllr James Geoghan (FG) said nobody in government wanted to make a decision that might exacerbate the homeless crisis. He questioned the policies of Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats, asking when did they plan to let evictions take place again. He pointed out measures that could be taken by local authorities including DCC to help provide housing and said that councillors from all parties should work together at a local level to achieve that.
Cllr Mannix Flynn (Independent) said that the only method we have to keep people in a home is to challenge evictions in court. He said he wants to “flood the courts with challenges to the evictions” and says that then you will see change. Cllr Flynn said that it was a “humanitarian issue” and that councillors “need to support those who are terrified of being thrown onto the streets or into emergency accommodation.”
Cllr Lacey (Lab) criticised officials in the Department of Housing and Department of Expenditure and said they have deliberately sought to dismantle the effectiveness of local government.
Cllr Dunne (I4C), concluded debate on his motion saying it was interesting to hear Fine Gael councillors support the small landlords and suggesting that they don’t support the tenants involved.
