PEDESTRIAN SAFETY:ABOUT 500 Dublin City Council staff yesterday started to clear ice and snow from pavements across the city.
The council said it had redeployed the workers from sections such as waste management, drainage and parks to assist in the initiative, which initially focused on clearing the Grafton Street and O’Connell Street areas.
It said about 200 staff were working in other areas of the city and focusing on clearing ice and slush from pavements around facilities such as hospitals.
A spokesman for the council said it did not have sufficient gritting materials to treat footpaths and that, provided it was effective, the ice-clearing initiative could continue into next week.
The decision was taken in spite of earlier comments from Dublin City Council's chief engineer Michael Phillips, who told RTÉ's Morning Irelandprogramme that the city centre's footpaths had "generally been very good" but that he regretted footpaths in the suburbs had not been treated.
He said plans were in place on Wednesday to salt footpaths in areas such as Drumcondra and Rathmines but that once heavy snow came in the afternoon, a decision was taken to conserve salt for gritting main routes.
Dublin Chamber of Commerce chief executive Gina Quin said bus and Luas cancellations, rail diversions and appalling road conditions had forced people to travel by rail.
She also said the footpaths outside the city’s main train stations remained treacherous.
Fingal County Council yesterday warned householders and farmers not to leave taps running as water supplies were reaching seriously low levels.
The council said supplies at its principal Ballycoolen reservoir were critically low due to increased demand.
People have been leaving taps running during the cold weather fearing that their pipes might freeze. The council said if water levels remained low, it would be forced to reduce pressure in all areas until supply returned to normal levels.
