Cork City Council fails the northside

by old codger - pensioner Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:42

Councils are supposed to be organisations elected to serve the needs of the community, unfortunately in Ireland they prefer to serve the needs of themselves first. This is a total disgrace these people on behalf of the EU and gormley will soon be imposing water charges on the public, Their services will not improve but their bank accounts will.
Cork Rebels should start the uprising that this country needs or we will just continue taking political bullshit and letting the scumbags away with it.

by Johnnie B Sun Nov 22, 2009 18:22

In fairness to the City Council they have set up water stations at five centres and standpipes at about ten other locations. The floods have damaged the water pumping station at the Lee Road. What else are they supposed to do?

On top of that local community groups, in conjunction with the gardaí, are distributing water to elderly people and checking that people are ok. City Council workers and emergency staff have been working around the clock since Thursday. This morning I spoke to one council worker who had got no more than five hours sleep since the emergency began on Thursday. I think they've done an excellent job.

I agree with you about water charges, but this is no time to attack the council workers.

by old codger - pensioner Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:34

It is definately not the workers i am Blaming it is the elected councilors, planners,and engineers that are at fault.
My home has been flooded 4 times and inspite of repeated requests to Sligo Council to inform me of Council regulations as to blockage of drains in a neighbour's cattle yard and the councils methods of enforcement to correct the situation , all i get in reply is the advice to take the neighbour to court. They are conveniently absolving themselves of any authourity in the problem.
40 or 50 years ago all farmers had to drain their land regularly and the councils always had workers on the road opening outlets in ditches to let the water of the road and rivers were dredged. It does not happen anymore Why? because the councils are more interested in making money than serving the people.

by Cork resident Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:11

Old codger you don't even live in Cork so your problems have got fuck all to do with this issue! The government, council management, ESB management all of these people collectively share a responsibility for what is hapening in Cork. The orginal story and the other comments are pretty useless really in fact this whole thread is a waste of space as it adds nothing in terms of new information nor does it offer any solutions or even a credible critique of what has happened. The idea that the army were sent in to protect business interests is rubbish. What do you even mean by this? If you mean they were sent to try to prevent damage to property etc well why wouldn't they do this it is after all in these businesses that workers are employed and could now lose their jobs! Or maybe you mean that people in Cork might loot the local businesses, is that what you mean that in this emergency working class people in Cork would just go out and try to steal and rob! If so you should be ashamed community spirit and working class solidarity has been a feature of the last few days in this city.

by Rebel C Mon Nov 23, 2009 18:25

fact is that human solidarity has thus far insured that people are getting by, people have looked after one another. Most of us have opened our homes to water deprived families to wash etc.

But the fact remains that many people are still having to buy water to get by and the ESB have not acknowledged that their negligence in not releasing water in advance of the storm has directly led to the crisis.

by pat c Mon Nov 23, 2009 18:39

The ordinary people of Cork have been badly let down by the City and County Councils and the ESB. If the ESB issued a warning then it wasn't properly communicated and the notice given was too short. It is obvious that a properly thought out emergency plan was not available to be implemented. The local council workers and ESB workers deserve praise for doing what they can when they are led by donkeys.

What is also worrying is the fact that water containers have quadrupled in price and bottled water has dopubled in price. The local gombeen men are gouging the flood victims.

by Pooka McFee - Nameless Faery Horde Wed Nov 25, 2009 00:35

This refrain should be on all your lips right now and you humans should be putting it into practice in your communities before you're in even deeper sewage than Cork was this week.....
Remember and repeat often..."Cunning planting of trees on high ground, helps ease flooding lower down."
They help clean shit out of the water too