NAAS, 29 June 2002: by Trish Whelan. Residents of Arconagh housing estate in Naas are investigating legal procedures by which they can force the town’s council to take the estate in charge and deal with what they say are ‘totally unacceptable’ health and safety hazards on the estate.
In a presentation to the council, representatives from the estate cited regular incidents of raw sewage overflowing from a manhole onto a road in front of houses, and also told of the green play area being a ‘swamp’ where it is unsafe for children to play.
It’s not the first time the residents have asked the council to take action on the problems - a year ago developers Conan Homes undertook to carry out drainage work on the green after the council threatened to call in his bond. The residents say they’ve been in correspondence with the builder and Naas town officials for a decade, but the green is still not fit to play on.
They also say that promises made by town officials in 1991 to realign and upgrade the estate entrance have not been kept, with the result that there are regular accidents at the entrance. And they say that a reply from a recent letter to the Town Hall ‘did not answer’ the questions raised.
Meanwhile, John Connolly of Conan Homes says a specialist is working on the sewage pumping station in the estate, and he says he spent over 15,000 euros on drainage of the green area last winter.
