Council needs to invest in more outdoor staff and equipment in Mayo district
OUTDOOR staff numbers in Mayo County Council need to be increased.
With existing staff stretched, and members of the public disillusioned, there has to be a focus on having basic equipment like street cleaners and more employees, was the message to management coming from a Westport-Belmullet Municipal District meeting.
Come budget time, they need to ask questions about what are the critical services in the county, said Councillor Peter Flynn, and have a shift to get people back out on the streets, green areas and maintenance of roads and other parts that have been forgotten about.
Responding to an update on staff and machinery, he commented how when he joined the council in 1999 there were 20 outdoor staff in Westport for a population of 5,000 people. Today, for 8,000 people, not to mention the wider area, and they are down to seven.
Back in 1999 they bought a street cleaner for €100,000 but today the municipal district doesn't have a street cleaner for an area all the way from Belmullet to Leenane.
He remembered gulleys being cleaned, with the streets swept every morning. Yet last week there was a deluge, with gulleys blocked, and it was difficult to understand.
Over 50 per cent of the top rate payers in the county are based in the municipal district, but they are down to seven outdoor workers, with no street cleaner or a machine for removing chewing gum off the streets or vaccum units for cleaning gulleys.
“Two lawn mowers is the total of our inventory,” he stated.
Councillor Flynn predicted that if they took away the work of the Tidy Towns in local communities, TÚS and the Rural Social Scheme 'we would be in dire straits'. And he didn't think the public at large understand what is being done by the various voluntary groups and through schemes around the county.
The council's outdoor workers are doing their best in difficult circumstances, but it cannot continue the way it's going.
Director of services Joanne Grehan said less equipment is owned but machinery is available. The model is around procurement and leasing, which is more cost efficient.
The outdoor staff are phenomenal, she said, and often work in difficult circumstances.
The local authority's workforce plan is currently being reviewed, and additional staff are being sought around graveyards and beaches, with some responsibilities merged, and maybe a new approach to address some of the concerns raised.
Thirty outdoor staff are needed in the municipal district, Councillor Brendan Mulroy told the director, as it is completely understaffed.
He was told that this summer, in Westport, there was unexpected and unplanned leave, which was beyond their control, and with the reshuffle perhaps sweeping wasn't done every morning as it would be.
If they had staff at their disposal it wouldn't be an issue, said Councillor Mulroy, who said people are disillusioned as they remember the service the council used to give.
* Funded under the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme