Trim hasn't enough funds to finish streets

Plans to complete Trim Town Council's street restoration project are set to be delayed because the council may not be able to afford to draw down the remainder of the €5m loan to complete the work. Local councillors were also told at a meeting last week that the €1.6m left to be drawn down from the €5m loan would not be enough to complete the remaining streets. Town Clerk Brian Murphy gave councillors an update on the street restoration project, saying that €3.4m of the €5m loan for which they were approved has been drawn down to date. Paid parking was introduced in 2006 to service the repayments on this loan. Works completed to date include those on Castle Street, Mill Street, Bridge Street, High Street, Haggard Street, Kells Road, Athboy Road and Loman Street. The plans for the Summerhill Road and the Kinnegad Road have been passed and plans are currently being put together for Watergate Street. Mr Murphy explained that the annual cost of servicing the €3.4m loan is €208,208 per annum, which is currently at a low interest rate of 1.4 per cent, but pointed out they could have difficulty balancing the books if there was an additional drawdown, particularly if the interest rate rose. Town manager Kevin Stewart told the meeting: "There has been a hell of a lot of good work done with the €3.4m. The issue is becoming what you can afford to service, not what you have approval for, and the question is if you can afford to service €5m of a loan. The budget for 2010 is not going to be easy; there will not be much scope for flexibility." He added: "We are working on the assumption that the Local Government Fund is to be cut by 15 per cent on top of the 10 per cent last year. In the context of next year's budget, I presume you will not want a rate increase or parking increase. Given that, choices will have to be faced." Cllr Phil Cantwell said: "Is it not more prudent to do what we said we'd do? Things could get worse and the roads are going to get worse." Cllr Trevor Golden said he believed Navangate needed to be done sooner rather than later and Cllr James O'Shea agreed, saying he felt when they decided to do High Street, Navangate got left behind and that it should be a priority now. Mr Murphy said the planning report for Navangate had not been passed by councillors and that they could not resolve the problems to councillors' satisfaction. Cllr Gerry Reilly replied that if those plans were the best they could come up with, then maybe it was time to put the plans back on display. He also asked if all money collected from paid parking went to servicing the loan. Mr Murphy replied that it also goes towards the running of the paid parking scheme such as the traffic wardens salaries and servicing of the meters. Cllr Vincent McHugh said: "We put €5m aside and now you are telling us that we budgeted wrong and that there isn't enough money to do the roads we set out to do. The €1.6m won't cover four roads. We are in a situation where there is no way we can take out another loan and no way we will increase rates. Two roads are not going to be done, it might only do one road." Mr Stewart said they had discussed the loan in 2002, and it was adopted in 2003. "Remember what has happened in terms of prices. At least three roads were done during the boom and prices were higher than anticipated in 2003 when we were budgeting. We tried to stretch the money where we could, using development levies and block grants but there are no development levies now. You are right. €1.6m is not enough by itself to finish everything. The key issue is not whether €1.6m is enough, it is the town budget - with no rate or parking increase and the decrease of 15 per cent in the Local Government Fund, it will be hard to balance, and that will determine what to do next and whether we do anything." Cllr Ronan McKenna said they had made a firm commitment not to raise the rates for three years during the local elections and would be standing by that. He said: "If members want to look at doing the roads, we need to sit down between now and the budget and analyse the details." Mr Murphy confirmed to councillors that current parking revenue would not be enough to service a loan of €5m if they drew down the last €1.6m. However, he said that in the context of the draft budget, between himself and the engineers, they would look at the bill of quantities to get approximate costings for the other streets and would also contact the bank about the loan. Cllr Ray Butler said there had been a lot of good work done transforming Trim but it was disappointing that they were now going to struggle to finish it. Cllr Donall O'Brien said that a lot of people would be angry but that if they explain in an honest fashion and if people really want the streets done up, they could maybe look at increasing parking charges. "If people really want it (the streets) done, it might be the only way around it," he said. Cllr McHugh said the work would be done but it could take a few years longer than they initially thought.