COULD THE ROAD BE CLOSED? Concerns have been raised about damage caused to local roads in Islandeady by the construction of the new N5 Turlough to Westport road, with one councillor saying the new road may not open until the issues are resolved.
Anton McNulty & Oisín McGovern
A CASTLEBAR county councillor has warned that there will be no opening of new N5 until the concerns of Islandeady residents are officially addressed.
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday (Monday) Cllr Michael Kilcoyne said residents impacted by ongoing works on the new dual carriageway will not allow it to be opened until their concerns are addressed.
Islandeady residents, local councillors and representatives of TII, Wills BAM and Mayo County Council have been invited to attend a meeting to discuss the these issues at 3.30pm tomorrow (Wednesday).
Local county councillors criticised damage which had been done by heavy machinery to local roads during the construction of the N5, which runs close to the village of Islandeady.
“The people of Islandeady have been inconvenienced in many ways,” Cllr Kilcoyne told The Mayo News.
Cllr Kilcoyne, who is Cathaoirleach of the Castlebar Municipal District, said that local people were demanding the reconstruction of a wall that had been knocked down as part of the development of the road.
“It was supposed to be replaced. The people of Islandeady are saying there’ll be no opening of that road if that’s not sorted.”
Earlier in the week, Cllr Ger Deere called on Mayo County Council and the contractors of the new N5 dual carriageway not to ignore the Islandeady community and to rebuild the stone wall at the entrance to the village.
The people of Islandeady have yet to receive a positive reply to a request to replace a stone wall at the entrance to the village of Islandeady which was knocked to accommodate works on the new road.
There has been repeated calls for Mayo County Council to replace the stone wall which is approximately 30 metres in length and located on lands owned by the Council.
Speaking at last week’s monthly meeting of Mayo County Council, Cllr Ger Deere urged the chief executive Kevin Kelly to intervene and ensure that the wall is built.
“We own the land where the wall should be built and the local community don’t understand why this is not happening. We have built wall after wall along this road at other locations. The Islandeady community have been impacted the most by the development of the N5 dual carriageway and they should not be left in this position. The local community council have worked very hard to improve their village and Mayo County Council and the contractors should build this wall for them,” he told the meeting.
Cllr Blackie Gavin said ‘craters’ being left in some roads surrounding the village, which straddles the new €260 million dual carriageway.
“It’s diabolical what was going on, and it’s not good enough,” Cllr Gavin told the monthly meeting of Castlebar Municipal District.
Cllr Ger Deere compared the state of the service roads in Cloggernagh East to ‘a war-torn area’.
Tom Gilligan, Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Roads, told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday) that it was up to the contractor to bring roads ‘back to the standard they were before works commenced’.
Islandeady issues could halt N5 opening
