‘Siege of Cherrygarth’ continues

Padraig Conlon 01 Sep 2022
A recent picture of the re excavation of the road outside Tom and Maura Fahey’s home.

SOUTHSIDE People recently featured a story of the travails of an elderly couple, Tom and Maura Fahey who live in Cherrygarth, a small estate between Mount Merrion and Stillorgan.

They are surrounded by two major construction sites which they say have made their lives like “living in hell.”

One of the sites is only 30 meters from their front door and the second is approximately 20 meters from their back wall.

Southside People has now been informed by local sources that on Friday, August 19, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown CC engineers stopped work on the installation of a sewerage/wastewater drain.

Tom Fahey says this is the third time in 18 months that this road has been excavated and residents have been denied access to their homes.

In an email to residents the Council stated:

“Now the contractor is informed by us to stop all drainage works at Cherrygarth until the works is undertaken in a safe manner for the staff involved and residents and that the trench construction is carried out in a proper manner where defects will not subsequently arise.”

We understand that the issues involved included non-shoring of a 3-meter-deep drain, workers working in this drain without proper safety precautions, poor quality road restoration work, prevention of access by residents to their homes for long periods and issues concerning the actual drain itself.

The stretch of road where this work is being done is home to at least five residents in their 80s and 90s.

In 2021 a parallel drain took 28 weeks to install on the same road and that was done in a safe manner and while very inconvenient for residents the contractor involved did all they could to mitigate the impacts.

This unprecedented action by DLR CC was driven by furious complaints by residents to DLR, the Health and Safety Authority and local Minister Josepha Madigan TD Due to the concerns of DLR engineers we understand that it is likely that the current drain may have to be dug up and reinstalled.

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