Published: Wednesday, 27th January, 2010 4:47pm

Kells council staff praised for work during freeze

by Ann Casey

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Kells Town Council and Meath County Council staff came in for thanks and congratulations for their work over the 'big freeze' at last week's meeting of Kells Town Council.

Councillors also paid tribute to the families of those who had been out gritting roads and footpaths continuously over a four-week period, which included Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, St Stephen's Day and New Year's Eve.

Area manager Brendan McGrath paid tribute to the many staff who had worked tirelessly over the icy period, and their families.

He acknowledged the engineering and technical teams, those operating gritting machines, the crisis management staff and administration staff, who dealt with over 6,000 calls, all of which were answered or received callbacks.

"This all happened at a time when staff were taking a pay cut. In fact, many turned up but were not paid," he said. He spoke of the work of the gritters, some of whom were going out in terrible conditions twice a night, once before midnight and again at around 4am or 5am. He paid tribute to the waterworks staff, the Civil Defence and the Army for theri help.

Cllr Bryan Reilly acknowledged the hours staff had put in to keep Kells moving and pointed out that, in other towns, people couldn't walk.

Cllr Tommy Grimes agreed, but said the moratorium on recruitment was causing huge problems for outdoor staff. Cllr Conor Ferguson complimented the staff on the gritting that was carried out in the town. However, he said there had been a problem on the footpath outside the town council offices.

"The red slabs should be removed or roughened up. They are deadly dangerous. I saw a young man with a child in his arms take a tumble out there," said Cllr Ferguson.

Cllr Brian Curran said there had been a lot of complaints about the condition outside the town hall. "We have spotlights, but no lights, and the surface is dangerous. People are slipping on it all the time," he said.

He complimented the outdoor staff and their families on the work carried out over the Christmas period.

Cllr Sean Drew praised the outdoor staff and said the council had made provision for additional gritting in the annual budget.

Cllr Brian Collins said he was in Dublin the night the city came to a stop because of an inch of snow. "The fact is, Kells took a battering of ice and snow, but kept going," he said.