Prioritise maintenance of older navan estates reilly

A Navan councillor has called on Meath County Council to prioritise the maintenance of a number of old estates in the Navan area.

According to Fianna Fáil's Tommy Reilly, several estates throughout the town - including local authority estates, in particular - are in need of both basic engineering works and general refurbishment.

Cllr Reilly cited Clusker Park as a case in point. The footpaths in the estate, he maintained, are in a poor state of repair and he is now asking Meath County Council 'to do a complete survey and start spending money in our own housing estates'.

While the refurbishment of Meath County Council's existing housing stock is an ongoing project, Cllr Reilly believes ensuring that the underground services are fit for purpose is the most important challenge at present.

'They have an abundance of engineers in Meath County Council who can do CCTV surveys for sewerage and water,' he said. 'They should be put in charge of an operation like that and we should begin with our own council estates and bring them up to a standard that people should be entitled to.'

According to the FF councillor, many local authority housing residents are paying significant rents and therefore deserve a high-quality abode. 'Anyone that's working and living in a council housing estate is paying as much rent as they would anywhere else,' he said.

While Claremont and Townspark estates in Navan have been regenerated in recent years, the housing section in Meath County Council has allowed the housing estates in its charge to deteriorate, he added. If this is allowed to continue, Cllr Reilly said he believes that local authority residents could be faced with a litany of issues ranging from sewerage and drainage problems to damp.

'These issues are costly on people and could result in people catching the flu or getting sick,' he said. 'Many local authority residents are older people and they need to be looked after, so there needs to be a big emphasis on our own housing stock and our own housing estates to bring them up to the standard that everyone is entitled to.'

While funding is tight in all council departments, and has been for a number of years, this is not the primary issue as far as Cllr Reilly is concerned. 'It's how that funding is spent. Proper value for money is needed,' he said. 'And the estates most in need should be done first.'

Meath County Council did not respond to a request for comment at the time of going to press.