The people of Thurles have long learned not to trust locally elected councillors or elected politicians, when their lips move.
Further proof, if proof was ever in doubt, was the statement published on the Facebook page of Councillor Mr Sean Ryan, dated March 28th last 2024. View HERE. (Note: Cllr Ryan has a habit of removing comments, especially from me; from his social media pages, so this statement of his may also vanish.)
Mr Ryan had stated that, quote, “Temporary repair work will commence on Kickham St. in Thurles, on Thursday April 4th & Friday April 5th. The major scheme for Kickham St. will commence in the summer.”
The people of Kickham Street, Thurles waited all day, today April 4th, and as expected, the potholes in the road surface got deeper and the gravel and muck from previous weeks of patching, continued to hop of the front window of my home, same encouraged courtesy of failings by town engineer Mr Thomas Duffy, in what I refer to as the (view link)“Duffy Pothole Solution.”
Damage caused by the ‘Thomas Duffy Road Surface Solution’ of pothole drainage. Pic. G. Willoughby.
I had fairly pointed out, on Cllr. Ryan’s Facebook page, that an email received by me from Ms Sharon Scully, (TMD administrator), contradicted his timeline of work scheduled for the busiest road in Thurles town, which had been initially highlighted continuously over the past 3 years.
Ms Scully’s email [dated Wed, 27th March, 18:46] read: “I can confirm that I have been to Kickham Street many times including over the last number of days and weeks. I can further confirm that the construction phase for the N75 Liberty Square to Anner Hotel scheme in Thurles is scheduled to take place between August and December of the current year. Temporary patching of the road will continue until this permanent work can take place.
Regards, Sharon Scully.
20.32 centimeters (8 inch) deep crater normally filled twice weekly on Kickham Street, Thurles. Pic. G. Willoughby.
Ms Scully’s reply, having visited Kickham Street, as she stated ‘many times’, further is proof that this county, at least, is governed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland and not by Tipperary Co. Council officials or local Councillors.
I had also pointed out that Cllr. Ryan was involved in an advanced form of electioneering with local elections scheduled on the immediate horizon. (Pictures sent and my comment were removed by Cllr. Ryan in case Mr Micheál Martin might refer to his Facebook.)
Road surface today on Kickham Street, Thurles, (April 4th, 2024.) Pic. G. Willoughby.
Yes, An Tánaiste Mr Micheál Martin was in Two-Mile-Borris yesterday, canvassing. He later dropped into the Arch Bar in Liberty Square, Thurles. Those rubbing of his suit jacket, included TD Mr Jackie Cahill, Cllr. Sean Ryan and European candidate Ms Cynthia Ni Murchu. (His arrival was unannounced.)
I am convinced his formal procession, latter riding in motor vehicles, entered Thurles via Mitchel Street, for surely Mr Martin would have asked why the road surface on Kickham Street, was in such a 3rd world condition entering a town.
I await my request, sent some weeks ago, on how to appeal against property tax payments made over the past 3 years, same request having been sent to the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Mr Eamon Ryan, (eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie), and the Minister for Finance, Mr Michael McGrath, (michael.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie).
I notice TD’s within the present government set themselves above replying to requests made by those who elected them.
Is An Tánaiste, Mr Micheál Martin fully aware that the name Fianna Fáil will most likely vanish within Co. Tipperary over the period of the next 3 elections, [Local, European, and General], due to total political indifference, shown by elected representatives of his political party.
Meanwhile, with regards ‘Temporary patching‘, the waste by Tipperary Co. Council continues.
A Tipperary man, aged in his 30s has been questioned, as part of the Irish Revenue Commissioner’s ongoing operations targeting smuggling and other shadow economy activities.
This follows the seizure of €66,200 worth of green diesel located in Co. Tipperary. We understand that the seizure was implemented on Tuesday April 2nd last, 2024.
According to the Revenue Commissioner’s, Green diesel amounting to some 40,500 litres was discovered during a search of a haulage yard within the county.
This seizure is understood to represents a potential loss to the Irish exchequer of approximately €34,800.
Revenue are encouraging members of the public, who may have information regarding smuggling or other shadow economy activities, to contact Revenue, in total confidence, on Tel: 1800 295 295.
Households across Ireland are bracing themselves for further price increases on Monday next “All Fools’ Day”, April 1st 2024. But the price increases promised for fuel, broadband, mobile phone and television should not be seen as just a practical joke or hoax.
From midnight on April 1st, the cost of petrol and diesel will rise with the price at the pumps rising by an extra 4 cent per litre for petrol, 3 cent per litre for diesel and 1.5 cent for marked gas oil. These increases are a step by the Government to restore excise rates to the levels they were at before a temporary cut was introduced due to the war in Ukraine.
You have two days to fill vehicle tanks, before fuel price hikes take effect.
From April 1st also, customers of Vodafone and Eir will see their bills go up by 7.6 per cent. Customers of Three will see their prices rise by a flat 4.5 per cent. Sky and Virgin Media have not committed to an annual automatic price hikes as yet.
It is no coincidence that all price rises across telecom industry providers, continue to hike their prices by a similar amount and at a similar time each year. However, consumers can save on their broadband and TV bills each year, by switching. Remember, mobile phones can be used to create WIFI hotspots for internet connectivity with most devices, (USB-tethering), while switching to other, cheaper providers.
Also, from April 15th, 2024, the price of certain beers will be hiked by a 6% increase on Diageo products, namely Guinness, Carlsberg and Smithwick’s, which when tax is included, will come to almost a 10% increase.
Thurles.Info’s‘eye in the sky’ sent back some rather disturbing images this morning. The first issue was the wanton destruction, by some ‘uncouth barbarians’, of public bench-seating, situated in the Cabragh-Ballycurrane area, close to the now redundant old Sugar Factory and closer still to the Thurles Top Oil Depot, on Route 659, south west of Thurles town.
Over this St Patrick’s weekend, vandals struck, severely damaging community seating, which had a wheelchair accessible plinth (rectangular block base).
Public bench-seating in Thurles destroyed in an act of vandalism.
As locals are probably aware, this facility, over the years, was been widely used by both young, old and infirmed, e.g. those attending the Thurles Rehab Care Resource Centre, and in more recent times the Ukrainian Refugees, based at the old Sugar Factory, on Cabra Road.
This bench-seating plinth, was put in place, and paid for, some years ago by the local residents association in conjunction with Thurles Lions Club. This weekend was the first time that it was vandalised and sprayed with paint.
Hopefully our local authority will see the benefit in rushing out, to undertake necessary repairs to this community seating.
Another Bent Post.
Our second image demonstrates a failure brought about, once again, by Tipperary Co. Council’s failure to employ qualified engineers. The picture, immediately above, shows yet another bent signpost, adding to the very large number of other bent and misleading signposts, stretched right across the town, being ignored for years.
Sadly, this act carried out at 10:45 Greenwich Mean Time, this morning, will, I greatly fear, put an end to any hope of our 5 awards, as promised.
Yet Another Three Day, Single, Crater Filling, Exercise.
As you can see from the image above, our ‘Eye in the Sky’ caught a glimps of a JCB attempting, for the second time in just 6 days, to fill the same single pothole on Kickham Street, Dublin Road, Thurles. Thankfully, none of the other 48 craters were filled in, so I suppose we should be grateful to the town’s Administrator, her local Engineer and the Chief Executive of the County Council.
One nearby neighbour, in an effort to remove my frustration and my down cast fizzog, said that the new crater filling, put in place this morning, should be gone again, over the next two days, and hopefully long before the adjudicators reach their expected final decisions. (So least said in case judges are out and about). Luckily the JCB operator left the filling to exiting traffic, to put pressure on the craters filling, in the knowledge that he would be back again on Friday or Monday, at the latest.
It’s a funny country, our little Ireland; we give out about the cost of medical health issues and funds spent by the HSE, yet we ignore, completely, the sheer waste of taxpayer money spent at Local Government and Municipal District Council level.
Thurles.Info are proud to inform its readers that Thurles Town has been nominated for no less than five Irish National Awards, for the first time in the Town’s history.
We attempted to contact Ms Sharon Scully (Thurles District Administrator) to announce the news, on Thursday March 14th last, however Ms Scully failed to answer her telephone.
We then attempted to contact Tipperary Co. Council’s Chief Executive Mr Joe MacGrath, however all we got was the usual automated email reply which read; [(Thu, 14th Mar, 11:25)“I am away from my office until Wednesday 20th March, 2024. Please re-send your email to evelyn.harty@tipperarycoco.ie, if this matter requires urgent attention. Since it wasn’t, we didn’t.
Full details of these “Five Irish National Awards”, (much coveted by other competing counties I might add), were contained in a communication delivered by registered post, to the offices of Thurles.Info. today.
The communication received reads as follows:-
Dear Mr. Willoughby, It is with great pleasure that I, as President of the Pothole Preservation Society of Ireland (PPSI), can inform you that Thurles has swept the boards in our annual “National Pothole Awards Competition”. As you will be possibly aware the foundation of our Society came about because of the need to maintain the high standard and quality of all road potholes in Ireland, and to recognise and reward those local authorities who contribute to the making of new potholes and who also support the improvement of those already in existence, by not filling them in, thus destroying their original structure and cultural Irish diversity.
You have highlighted the pothole situation on many occasions with fine photographs from your local area and a number of these are now on permanent display in our Library.
As you know, potholes have been an intrinsic part of our heritage for centuries, in fact ever since the invention of the wheel. It is a matter of record that many blacksmiths all over our green and pleasant land, have made a good living, for many years, from the refurbishing of wheels on donkey carts, horse-drawn carriages and caravans, as a result of the careless driving through, rather than around, our nation’s numerous potholes.
Similarly, in modern times, tyre companies have contributed greatly in reducing unemployment figures as they attend to the needs of motorists who fail to recognise the need to avoid potholes at all times, especially at night. Speaking of which, our Society is extremely conscious of the difficulty of this latter point raised, and is presently engaged in active discussion with the Road Safety Authority on the possibility of providing Pothole Warning Lights (PWL), for night-time driving.
Adjudication:
Judging of all the major towns in Ireland has just been completed and, while the final official ratings from our headquarters will not be available for some weeks. Delay is due to the practice by some County Councils, who insist on filling potholes that have already been nominated for an award.
However, I am in a position to inform you that, to-date, Thurles has been awarded first place in all of our major categories.
These categories include:
Highest Overall Number of Potholes.
Lowest Number of Streets with no Potholes.
Highest Number of Potholes impossible to avoid while driving.
Potholes that simply will not vanish.
First-time Potholes Filled In, but still causing serious bumps while driving.
Your town of Thurles is expected to finish top of the list outstripping, by a huge majority, all other leading contendersin their race for National Award recognition.
It is a matter of great pride for our Society to highlight the fact that the municipal authority, within the Thurles Town Municipal District area, has set new standards of preservation with regards non maintenance of potholes in the town and its environs. and have set new standards for others that will be most difficult to emulate into the future.
Yours sincerely, T. R. McAdam,Honorary Secretary, (Pothole Preservation Society of Ireland).
Readers please keep your fingers crossed, the race is on.
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