Councillors push for better maintenance of Fingal’s footpaths

At a meeting on Monday, Social Democrats Councillor Joan Hopkins asked that the council publish its policy on universal access to the public realm – specifically footpaths.

In other words, how the council makes sure everyone can get around the county’s footpaths, whether they walk or use a wheelchair, are vision impaired or not – whatever their situation. 

But Mary T. Daly, the council’s director of operations, said there is no specific council policy for  universal access to the public realm in Fingal. 

Instead, the council relies on best practice guidelines including from the Voice of Vision Impairment, and the Irish Wheelchair Association, Daly said. As well as national policies like Part M of the Building Regulations, she said.

“I don’t have a policy, and I don’t intend to put a policy in place. The area engineers prioritise on a daily and weekly basis,” said Daly, at the meeting of the council’s Public Realm, Transportation/Mobility Management Strategic Policy Committee (SPC). 

“And we also rely very much on feedback from the public and yourselves,” she said.

Okay, said Hopkins, well could the council do an audit of all the footpaths in the county? she asked.

“I actually fell over a broken footpath today,” said Hopkins. “Now, I'm grand, but there are loads and loads and loads of footpaths that need to be repaired.” 

Michael Lenehan, who sits on the committee via the Public Participation Network, said there are real issues with footpaths in the county. 

For example, flooding makes some impassable at times, Lenehan said. “If you try and walk to the station from Lusk on a rainy day, you’re bound to be drowned by passing cars,” he said.

But Daly, the council’s director of operations, was firm: nope, not happening. “Look, every footpath can't be perfect all the time,” Daly said.

“I don't have the resources to put engineers doing audits on all our footpaths and roads,” she said. No council would, she said. 

“We rely very much on visual inspections. When the engineers are out, they know their own area really well.”

Hopkins said maybe there was some wiggle room, where the engineers could just provide some statistics on how many repairs they need, and if there’s a big gap in need, the council could work on budgeting for it.

“So that [Fianna Fáil Councillor] Darragh [Butler] and I and other councilors could say, actually, we're not budgeting adequately for the footpath maintenance and repairs that we require in the county,” Hopkins said. 

“I just would love to have this SPC try and drive some kind of, maybe policy or budgetary change that would help you to deliver what we're asking for,” she said.

But Daly said the strategic policy committee doesn’t deal with the budget, it deals with policy.

“The budget is a separate matter. If you want to raise an operational matter with regards to providing enough funding … you have to do that through the normal budget process,” she said.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.