Waterford Council stalling road improvements in Ferrybank
Roadworks have severely impacted Ferrybank residents.
Waterford City and County Council have yet to come to agreement concerning major road improvements in Ferrybank. This was heard at the February meeting of the Piltown Municipal District in relation to the Abbey Road/ Belmont link.
Gathered councillors heard about the ongoing progress from Area Engineer for Kilkenny County Council, John Tennyson.
He said: "The Abbey Road/ Belmont upgrades, preliminary design drawings are being discussed. They're still waiting on Waterford City and County Council to come to the table to sign off on the Section 85, so really the ball is on Waterford's side there."
Section 85 refers to a co-operative agreement made between two local authorities. Mr Tennyson added: "It is holding up progress on those two roads."
Cathaoirleach Pat Dunphy said that he had received a number of complaints over the state of the Abbey Road and the sizing of the footpaths.
He asked: "When is it envisaged that it might be done?"
Mr Tennyson explained that works stipulated by the URDF have to be completed before any re-surfacing can be done.
He went on: "The timeframe will be when the URDF is completed. My update from that is saying that we're waiting on a Section 85 to be agreed with Waterford City and County Council and no progress has happened on that in the last couple of months. We need them to come to the table here for progress on that scheme."
Cllr Dunphy said: "It's such a bad road at the moment and it's getting worse all the time. I'm fearful this could go on for a number of years."
Mr Tennyson said that a quarter of the Abbey Road was in the Waterford area, thus "there has to be an agreement there".
He added: "Kilkenny Council is leading the URDF but there has to be a joint sign-off on the Section 85. I don't know what the reasoning is but it is delaying the progression of that scheme."
Ferrybank is home to roughly 7,000 people, 2,000 of whom are Waterford residents.
