100 houses have no CE scheme worker maintaining their green areas

There are over 100 houses whose green areas are not being maintained by a CE scheme worker in south Leitrim and "the estates are becoming overgrown with grass and weeds", a meeting heard this week.

Cllr Roisin Kenny called Leitrim County Council for an update regarding the position of caretaker/gardener for Cois Easa local authority estate in Aughavas.

The official response said that maintenance of the amenity areas associated with the Cois Easa Estate in Aughavas has been
undertaken by individuals on the Estate Management Community Employment Project (CE) which is administered by Leitrim Development Company (LDC) and the council are not seeking to recruit for the role but is engaging with LDC in order to establish if a maintenance worker can be reassigned to the Cois Easa estate under the Estate Management Community Employment Project (CE) in the short-term."

Cllr Gary Prior seconded the motion saying the response was "not much of a report" before adding that he understood that an issue arose some months ago "with a member on a CE scheme who had an accident and CE workers were stood down. There are a number of estates in Aughavas, Corrawaleen and Drumcong; there needs to be an engagement there from Leitrim County Council and LDC to get these workers back up and working."

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He continued that he understood there is an issue with the local residents' association "that there needs to be a rep from the association and they work with the LDC. There was no agreement in place from the association but the CE worker was going in. Letters have gone out the representatives from the various housing groups."

He stressed that grass "has been left there for six months and if left over winter, we'll have an awful mess come spring. I see the estates are becoming overgrown with grass and weeds. These CE workers are very valuable and only get an extra €28 a week on top of their allowance but they do take value in their work. I spoke to one man who was a non-Irish citizen who thought he was going to lose his job and was very upset over it."

He concluded: "Up in Summerhill, there are five estates there with CE worker. Is the council aware of this? That's 100 houses that are not being looked after. You need to get talking to the people on the ground."

David Minton, director of services replied that he hadn't been made aware of "any tensions on the ground amongst staff and the LDC" and said he would provide an update on the situation at the next meeting.

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Cllr Prior said it was important to get them in before the end of the season and "tidy up them estates because they are going out of control and I don't know what will happen if they are left until next spring of 2026."