Kilkenny County Council & Kilkenny Borough Council

It is a great privilege for me as Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council to introduce the Annual Report for 2004. The Report outlines the Council’s many and varied activities throughout the County across all services.
Some of the highlights of the year include:-

• Area plans were adopted for Ballyhale, Knocktopher, Ballyragget, Inistioge & Urlingford.
• The Local Area Plan for the development of the Western Environs of Kilkenny City was published and adopted.
• Kilkenny County Council has opened its first recycling centre at Dunmore Landfill. It is estimated that the provision of this state of the art facility, coupled with the widespread availability of kerbside collection, has increased the re-cycling rate for the County in 2004 to 18%.
• Woodstock Gardens attracted approximately 30,000 visitors.
• A dedicated enforcement team was set up in January 2004 to deal with the problem of unauthorised dumping and complaints from the public.

Progress has been made on various infrastructural projects
The major schemes undertaken included:

• N8 Cullahill/Cashel- CPO confirmed by An Bord Pleanála.
• N9 Kilcullen/Waterford- CPO documentation in preparation.
• N77 Kilkenny Ring Road Extension-Tenders for construction received in December.
• R700 Wallslough-Bennettsbridge.
• Kilkenny Eastern Environs Link Road.
• R910 Design- Waterford Road Traffic Management Scheme.
• Design-Kilkenny Inner Relief Road.
• Graiguenamanagh By-Pass-CPO confirmed.
• N9 South of Mullinavat & Mullinavat village.
• N10 Kilkenny to Gowran junction.
• N24 Grannagh to Ballygriffin.
  

• 100 new families were housed by Kilkenny County Council.
• A total of €2 million expenditure was incurred in loans of which €448,300 was in respect of Affordable Housing.
• 54 disabled person’s grants were paid to persons undertaking necessary renovation works for disabled persons.
• The seven fire brigades in Kilkenny Fire Service were mobilized over 1000 times in 2004. The average time to turn out a fire engine from the time the call was received was 5.90 minutes. The fire service was in attendance at 41.24% of emergencies within 10 minutes of being called, 47.44% within 20 minutes and 11.94 in over 20 minutes.

I would like to acknowledge the co-operation and assistance of my fellow Councillors and to take this opportunity to put on record my appreciation. I would also like to pay tribute to the County Manager and Staff for the manner in which they assisted me in the performance of my role. My time as Cathaoirleach has proven to be a very fulfilling and rewarding experience and I look forward to meeting the challenges that lie ahead.

I would like to express thanks to my predecessor Councillor Bobby Aylward for his help and co-operation during the year.

Mary Hilda Cavanagh
Cathaoirleach.