A councillor has called on Donegal County Council and the statutory funding agencies to explain the thinking behind their neglect of his native town, Ramelton.
Referring to some of the ‘historic buildings’ in the town Cllr. Ian McGarvey says a number of these have trees growing out of their rooves and the slates are posing a danger to nearby residents.
Cllr. McGarvey said that he’s now spent fourteen years as a loyal member of the Council and he fails to understand how any local authority could stand over their failure to deal with the many problems the community in Ramelton is forced to live with year after year.
And he says it is a fact that so many of his colleagues are commenting to him on the neglected state of Ramelton and that something needs to be done to deal with the decay.
Cllr. McGarvey was responding to critical comment over the deterioration of the town’s infrastructure in the last two years as a legacy of problems and disrepair have now become a sad feature of this once renowed landscape.
McGarvey says the town does not even have a development plan despite his representations to Lifford for these past 25 years.
“Everyone knows that towns like Ramelton are starved of funding and plans will add little apart from cost with no actual works or repairs being done in the meantime. That is not acceptable and every official in the statutory bodies whom I’ve been on contact with agree that the one main priority is money and the funding agencies must explain why they allowed the town to fall into the current state of disrepair. Kerbing, foothpaths, estate road, loss of essential services and so much more,” says Cllr. McGarvey.
And he adds that many of his queries to the Council have failed to get an answer and this is reflected in the numbers of questions and motions he has presented to Council meetings since his first election in 2004.
Ramelton is a legend of history and Georgian archictecture in Donegal and against that background it should be well placed to attract interest from the Council and the State funding agencies, says Cllr. McGarvey who confesses the current lack of progress is a total embarrassment to himself and other members of the Council with an interest in promoting the town.
Once destined for a major project because of it Georgian architecture, Cllr. McGarvey says its historic past is now a millstone around its neck and it has created a vacuum where nobody from the agenicies has any interest in the promotion of the town.
This statement is borne out in the los of the Genealogy Centre, the local library remains closed and the entire town does not have any citizens information centre or tourism promotion plan in place.
The litany of issue that Cllr. McGarvey has pursued include pedestrian crossings on the Tank Rd. and at Whoriskeys shop: the surfacing and proper marking of Gamble’s Square and access from the Shore Road. Road marking at Pound St. and the Back lane, Footpaths at Letterkenny road, Rectory Road., Bank Tce., to Drumonaghan Wood and Castle St.
He has also promoted a car park at Bank Terrance Graveyard where the hedgerows are completely overgrown and the road surface is a disgrace.
Cllr. McGarvey has also been lobbying for a parking area at Drumonaghan Wood Walk. He’s raised the poor quality of public lighting in many parts of the town including the Shore Road where the public has to wait for Christmas for a proper job of work by a voluntary committee.
Cllr. McGarvey has pursued the Council for a timeframe for the upgrading of the Sewerage treatment works that currently go into the Lennon. He has sought oto have the local library restored without any support from the authorities.
He has also sought to have a Citizen’s Advice service in the town along with the restoration of the genealogy service.
On another level on infrastructure matters he’s been battling to have a barrier put in place on the Newill and Burnside Barrier on Newmill Roads for safety reasons and again says nobody in Lifford seems to be listening or willing to spend any funding in his native town.
He has also asked the Council for check on unnecessary signage in town and this is highlighted at the Tank junction on the Mall where around twenty signs are in place in a confused cacophony of colour and size.
He has also sought, without any success to get the Council to provide him with a list of protected buildings in Town. It is claimed that per kilomotre that the town has the most number of protected properties in Ireland and according to Cllr. McGarvey they are all in urgent need of repair.
He’s has also sought to have a caretaker for the cemeteries in the locality including Tully graveyard.
Again he’s tried without any success to get Council engineers to carry out an assessment of the structure and conditioon of the Town bridgeas the condition on the Bridge in Town as well as surface work at St. Mary’s Terrace housing estate.
He has also being pursuing the Council to have the overhaning trees on the Moorefield road cut back becaue they are seen as a traffic hazard for coaches and trucks.
Asked if he thought that the additional funding going into Letterkenny with the loss of its Town Council status was a factor, Cllr. McGarvey said the public can judge for themselves the small volume of Council work across the rural districts of this part of Donegal
