James Lawless - View from the Tracks » Rathmore

Kilteel / Eadestown Notes

James Lawless — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:32:24 +0000

I was in Kilteel hall the other night for a candidate debate. Good event and pity there aren’t more of them around the constituency. Five of us attended (me, Willie, Tiernach, Paddy Mac and Tony Lawlor) and we all were given an opportunity to introduce ourselves at the outset. There followed a Q & A session and we discussed various local matters. Noone won or lost politically but it was a very worthwhile exercise to understand the local issues.

I’ve been canvassing the area for some time now so I had a reasonable grasp of the issues already. Roads, roads and broadband. Yep they’re the big ones. Roads such as the red big lane are in dire straits whilst the N7 improvements were a mixed blessing with the road from the turf bog lane down through Rathmore and Eadestown becoming an exceptionally busy rat run. Schools are an issue and I outlined my suggestion for a shared second level facility in “North Naas” i.e. between Sallins, Johnstown, Kill and of course Kilteel / Eadestown too.

I had already worked on getting broadband to the area with the exchange upgrade earlier this year. Well it turns out half the places aren’t covered and the school has to share with another line. A lot done, more to do me thinks. We’ll be back to this one, all going well next Friday.

Crime is also an issue as I knew from my canvass. A few unpleasant incidents recently.

Lot of things for me to get stuck into if I get that chance.

Resurface the Red Bog

James Lawless — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:31:53 +0000

Resurface the red bog road – I was on it today and it certainly needs a fresh coat of tarmac – a few more signs and some road widening wouldn’t go amiss either. Another one for the list if I ever get in there..

Broadband for Eadestown

James Lawless — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:58:26 +0000

Working in IT, (and admittedly a bit of an anorak at times), technology is never far from my mind. So it didn’t take much prompting for me to include broadband provision as a campaign pledge when I set out my stall a while back.

Having been around the ward a bit at this stage I now have the details on where exactly does and doesn’t have the service. It all depends on the local exchange, whether or not it is enabled, and then on your own connection and your distance to the exchange. Some houses require a localised upgrade while most will benefit immediately from an exchange upgrade, providing however that the distance from exchange does not exceed 5 KM.

It can be inconsistent at times. There are parts of Caragh where one side of the road has it (high speed broadband) and the other doesn’t. Two Mile House don’t have but are in line when the Athgarvan exchange comes on stream later this year – however it will still depend on distance along the wire.

When I met people in Eadestown a month or so back it came across as the number one issue. I used some of my contacts to track down senior management in Eircom and put it to them. A local techie had also raised it at a First Tuesday meeting recently and a local petition was gathering momentum. I always say credit where its due and I have to say Eircom were very responsive and reacted very positively to the concerns. Originally they told me June but they actually upgraded ahead of schedule last month with the result that the area now has a fully enabled exchange and hence high speed broadband. Result.

One down, two to go (Caragh, Two Mile House). I’ll keep on it.