"Stop fiddling about with red tape" is the message of one local councillor to City Hall, who is demanding the local authority "press ahead immediately" with installing CCTV cameras to "combat crime" in estates on the east side of Galway.
Independent city councillor Terry O’Flaherty says that after almost two years of campaigning for CCTVs, she and residents in Coillte Mhuirlinne and Sruthan Mhuirlinne in Ballybane, and Walter Macken Place in Mervue, were "running out of patience over the long hold-up".
Funding for CCTVs was secured in the Galway City Council budget for 2015, while in March, the council’s director of housing told her in an email the request for CCTV installation was "under active consideration” and would be advanced in the current year. However as yet, no CCTV cameras have been installed.
Cllr O'Flaherty said she was also "very disappointed" that the recent council meeting was "adjourned" without a discussion of a motion she had tabled on this issue.
"There is a history of problems in the two Ballybane estates which are close to the Merlin woods, which is one of the root causes of the increase in anti-social behaviour that is making life a misery for many residents," she said. “They are sick to the teeth of hearing assurances from the council that the cameras will be installed, but nothing happening."
Cllr O'Flaherty said residents were "fed up with the council fiddling about with red tape" and that anger was growing with the summer approaching. "With its long evenings, this is a time when the anti-social activities tend to increase,” she said. "It seems the concerns of the residents are falling on deaf ears and they are just being fobbed off. It’s time for the council lived up to its promises."
