Notification was received today that the contract for the Mallow/ Ballyviniter Water Supply Scheme – Phase 1 will be signed at 10.30am on Monday 14th February 2011 in Council Chambers, County Hall. Cork County Council will be awarding the contract to Carty Contractors Ltd of Ballisodare, Co. Sligo for the tender total of €2,925,025.61 including VAT. Site works are due to commence in March with a construction period of 15 months.
The contract includes:
- Construction works at three borehole sites
- Water treatment facility
- Treated water pumping station
- 16.7km of watermains
- Upgrading of the existing Ballyviniter Reservoir.
This is indeed a very positive step for the future provision of water supply in the Mallow area. This investment is essential for the future development of Mallow Town and its surrounding hinterlands. Undoubtedly, everyone in Mallow is more than aware of the shortages of water experienced in the Mallow Area during the recent cold spell and this investment will ensure the much needed additional supply of water to the area.
I have been very vocal and active on the Water Service Investment Programme (WSIP) since elected and in partcilular how some of our new schemes are funded. In the majority of schemes of this nature, the local authority is responsible for funding up to 40% of the entire scheme, as was the case in the Mallow/Ballviniter Scheme at Box Cross. In the current climate, this would have seen Cork County Council paying up towards €2m for this entire scheme which was totally unfeasible.
Following representations I made on this, the North Cork Divisional Manager liaised with the County Manager on this particular scheme and a revised pricing policy for this scheme was sent to the Department of Environment, Heritage & Local Government in October 2010 for consideration. Thankfully the pricing policy has been accepted and will now see Cork County County & Mallow Town Council paying a total of just over 25% for this entire scheme. This now ensures the scheme can now proceed and we can look forward to the future development of water services in the Mallow Area.
This also paves the way for future schemes of this nature in which similar pricing policies maybe used.
