Caragh Manifesto

I hope I’ve met most the good folk of Caragh by this stage but if not feel free to get in touch. Here is my list of updates and issues for the village:

Caragh NS: The school was included in September of last year as one of 25 projects which are to progress to tender and construction (RN: 18654A). The project involves the construction of a 15 classroom extension, GP hall and ancillary accommodation for the school. The project is currently progressing through the advanced stages of architectural planning

Estate Issues: I have raised compliance issues with council building control section particularly re Old Chapel Wood and Gingerstown Park estates, in relation to green space and access, and I am also pursuing works outstanding in a number of locations around the village such as drainage issues.

Drainage & Flooding – The road section near the railway bridge needs to be improved to prevent flooding issues. The flooding problem in this area has left the walls and footpaths at the Streams covered in dirt. This problem is also leading to potholes and road erosion. The recently installed water drains at the road edge also require rework and should be inset into the footpaths.

Footpath from Village to Donore/Mondello – The road to Stickens, Donore and Mondello can be dangerous for pedestrians, however, given their close proximity to the village shop, a footpath should be provided to serve these areas. Traffic calming in Donore is also needed along with resurfacing/rebuilding of the village road from the Liffey bridge through to Mondello.

Bus Service – Caragh needs a bus service to Naas and I am already engaging with private operators to progress this. I have proposed the creation of a Prosperous – Caragh – Naas route.

Broadband – Coverage in the village is not consistent and I have been in discussions with Eircom on this – the Caragh exchange is due for upgrade this year.

Playground – I support the provision of playgrounds and play centres right across the constituency. If elected, I would hope to identify a suitable playground site within Caragh village.

Broadband for Eadestown

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.