Mulvihill gets plan put in place to deal with icy conditions.

”Cobh Town Council has come up with a plan to deal with the harsh cold spells this winter to ease on foot conditions and the icy road conditions.” said Cllr john Mulvihill jnr

“Both Cobh Town Council and Cork County Council have done great work in the last two weeks in ensuring that many of our roads were passable. I wish to recognise that work, often in poor conditions they were out gritting when many of us were tucked up in bed. However I as am sure all councilors were contacted in relation to availability of grit and salt locally. My understanding is the price of salt is quite cheap, and the real issue over the last number of weeks has been manpower due to the recent cutbacks and the recruitment ban resulting in many foot paths and roads being impossible to get to.

In a time of crisis in terms of weather and peoples inability to travel to the nearest shop, get to work and indeed getting children to school, many people will volunteer to do their bit to ensure the footpaths and roads are made safer. Following the recent clarification from the government in relation to insurance liability we as a council in partnership with Cork County Council should put in place a plan to ensure grit and salt to be available to the people of Cobh.

I would envisage a plan that would set up a number of collection areas for salt and grit. Areas that might be suitable would be the Water Tower, our land in Ballynoe, the yard Cobh town council used for the storage of the refuse truck, White Point is another is another. I am sure there are many areas that can be added but it is vital that we have areas that would be accessible to people. I have mentioned areas in the Town Council’s own ownership and these areas would allow us to build up a sufficient stock and also provide security for it when it was not needed therefore we would not be waiting for stock to come in when it might be needed most.

On the continent, bunkers containing salt are frequently seen along the roads and indeed estates, it might be said that they would be vandalized or stolen but having come through the recent cold snap here, people would see the importance of them and respect what they are in place for. Obviously there are cost issues in providing same but we could encourage Resident Associations to purchase one or two for their estates. I have checked out the price and a 240KG bunker costs in the region of €160 including vat. We as a council should be in a position to provide salt and grit thus ensuring peoples accessibility to salt and grit in their own locality.

I wish to acknowledge once again, the recent effort by Council staff, however if we were able to have a plan in place for grit and salt distribution locally, it would ensure Cobh is a safer place as we head into another cold snap this coming weekend. Indeed it is quite likely that the cold weather will be a regular occurrence for many winters to come.

Let’s get this plan in place now to ensure people will have knowledge of it and the sites where people can get salt and grit. By doing so we as a town council would be the first town council in Cork to have a comprehensive plan in place.”

Following a comprehensive discussion it was agreed that Cobh Town Council would identify a number of distribution sites in different areas of the town whereby people can get grit for their own local areas. These locations will be identified this week, and the sites when identified will be publicised ahead of the expected cold spell this weekend.

It was also agreed to contact Residents Associations, urging them to purchase bunkers for storage of grit in their own estates, the council has committed to supplying grit to fill the bunkers which can be used when the need arises.

Cobh Town Council has committed to setting up a sub committee to monitor the roll out of this plan on a monthly basis. Cllr Mulvihill welcomed the out come of the discussion.