THAWGATE: THE INQUEST

WHILE Northern Ireland Water and other statutory bodies have been frozen out by the public over their handling of the homes throughout the borough and beyond which suffered major water problems during the thaw, Ballymena Borough Council have been praised for leading by example, Mayor Maurice Mills has said.

Speaking at the outset of last Tuesday night’s January Council meeting, the First Citizen said the local authority had received very positive feedback on their proactive response to the crisis not only from residents but from central government.

“I think they were slightly amazed by the work and effort put in by local government and we were down there at the very coal face,” he said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Mills, who pointed out that he had to cover some of his 25 Mayoral engagements during the past month using a bicycle for transport due to the wintry conditions, said he had received “many, many phone calls” in praise of the efforts of Council staff both in keeping pavements clear of ice and snow and in coming to the aid of residents whose homes were either deluged by water or left without supply.

The local authority also received a number of letters congratulating them on their efforts, among them correspondence from Broughshane Improvement Committee and Baroness Nuala O’Loan.

Giving an update on the action taken by Council, Chief Executive Anne Donaghy said the local authority, on Ministerial advice, had speedily implemented the humanitarian part of their Emergency Plan as the thaw began.

She said due to “a distinct lack of information” the first step taken was to ascertain the scale and extent of loss of supply.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She said in excess of 100 phone calls and site visits were made around the borough including all 26 residential and care homes, all of which, she stated, had unaffected water supplies.

Councillors were also told that standpipes were set up at Pennybridge and Woodside Road and washing facilities were made available at the Leisure Centre, Wellington Court and the People’s Park as well as at Kells Community Centre.

“Every effort was made to get the right resources to the right places and in terms of Ballymena supplies are now full restored,” she told the meeting.

Mrs Donaghy added that as chair of the Local Government Emergency Planning Group she had attended all relevant meetings re the actions required as a result of the thaw.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Praise was subsequently lavished on Mrs Donaghy, her officers and the council staff who worked on the ground to deliver those actions.

Councillors echoed the Mayor’s words of commendation, many taking the opportunity also to complain about the lack of help from other bodies during the crisis, in particular, Northern Ireland Water (NIW) and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

Particularly vociferous in their criticism of those bodies was Cllr Beth Adger, Roy Gillespie, Martin Clark, Davy Tweed, Monica Digney and Paul Frew.

All those, however, clarified that their complaints were aimed at the highest level and were agreed that high praise was due to NIW workers and others on the ground.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The majority were also agreed that ‘lessons had to be learned’ in the event of a repeat of the crisis of Christmas 2010.

“Council workers did an excellent job but unfortunately the Housing Executive and Water Service didn’t,” said Cllr Adger who was one of many members who complained that lines of communication were “a disgrace”.

“If you got through you were given a recorded message and told to ring back later and that is just not good enough because people were calling on us to tell them what was going on”.

Alderman Hubert Nicholl agreed “it was very, very difficult to get through”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“But the staff at the NIW depot at Pennybridge did an excellent job,” he said.

“We have got to learn from this (crisis) we have got to involve the community more because they are, at the end of the day, the ones that suffer. - People out there were in desperation”.

Cllr Roy Gillespie said: “We couldn’t get one bit of detail as to when it (the water) would be on again.

“When I ring up I want detail. You feel stupid going back to constituents and saying nothing,” he stated.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Cllr Declan O’Loan, who observed that Ballymena got off lightly in comparison to some other parts of the province during the thaw, emphasised that “a thorough, independent investigation is needed”.

Cllr Tweed said “lessons had to be learned”, pointing out: “This is down to climate change so it is going to happen again”.

Mr Tweed said he believed that simple measures such as lagging of pipes in homes and ensuring householders knew where there stopcocks were located could go a long way towards curtailing a repeat of serious water damage to many properties in a thaw situation.

However, Cllr PJ McAvoy told the meeting: “I believe the system of piping under the ground is so out of date it is going to take a lot of time and money to get it repaired”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Cllr Paul Frew said: “One thing people need in a crisis is leadership and they certainly got it from this council”.

Ideas mooted by councillors included the appointment of emergency co-ordinators by community associations who could work with Council and provide feedback from their areas (Cllr Hubert Nicholl); improved availability of basic preventative advice on pipe lagging etc for homeowners from the Assembly’s Emergency Committee (Cllr David Tweed); the establishment of a call centre system for NIW to provide improved communication lines (Cllr Paul Frew); investigation by Council into the strategic positioning of boreholes to provide water in the event of curbed or cut supplies (Cllr James Currie); the purchase by Council of mini snowploughs for use in tandem with quads to clear footpaths of ice and snow (Ald. Sam Hanna).

Chief Executive Anne Donaghy pointed out that Ballymena along with Belfast were the first authorities to clear footpaths having entered into a partnership agreement with Roads Service and this, she pointed out, was of “significant benefit to the town”.

She added that it was carried out at no extra cost to ratepayers as resources had been redirected from other Council departments.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She concluded: “I want to formally place on record praise to all members of staff that have played a key, vital and critical role clearing ice and snow from footways and in helping with interruption in water supplies.

“I think we can be very proud as a council of what we achieved”.