OPW Called On To Restore Blackwater Garda Station Following Fire

Wexford County Council is going to ask the OPW Minister to get the Blackwater Garda Station back up and running very shortly.

An arson attack shut down the building in May and the site has remained closed to the public ever since.

Councillors passed a motion calling for Minister Kevin Boxer Moran to "prioritise and expediate the completion of refurbishment works".

The motion was put forward by Fine Gael's Oliver Walsh who says the area needs a stronger Garda presence:

"Now we have no Garda Station in Blackwater when we did have a very active one which covered a huge area from Blackwater, Kilmuckridge up to Oulart.

"I feel that we as a community are being let down by not having a Garda Station in our area."

Councillor Walsh says it's baffling that no work has been carried out on the station in nearly 6 months.

He feels it needs to be brought back into use as a matter of urgency:

"It was cleared and cleaned out early on but as far as I know no other work has been done since then.

"The windows and doors have been boarded up but nothing else has been done since."

Councillor Walsh says it's now a safety concern and an annoyance for the local people:

"It does act as a deterrent. People, especially older people feel a lot safer when there's a Garda presence in a village.

"Apart from that, if anybody wants a form signed there was quite a lot of people from the surrounding areas looking to get those kinds of things done.

"If you were looking to get a gun licence or whatever like that but now nothing like that can happen."

That report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.