Science going against local roads in Mayo coastal areas being gritted

Local roads in coastal locations are unlikely to avail of salt or grit this winter due to their proximity to the sea as the salt residue in the air will prevent roads from frosting over.

Members of the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District were informed by senior management that local roads are unlikely to be gritted this winter due to the lack of resources to do so.

Head of the municipal district, Seamus Ó Mongáin informed councillors that in the event of a prolonged cold snap, they will make grit available in some locations. However, he stressed that this will depend on a number of factors with a road's proximity to the sea likely to determine against gritting these roads.

“In the event of a cold snap we try to be as responsive as we can in areas that are badly hit. We can't however put them all on a programme because we don't have the resources to do that. 

“The other point I make is that the assessment of roads is based on a huge amount of factors and one of them is coastal locations. Temperatures of roads in coastal locations because of its proximity to the Atlantic is considered not to drop than they do on roads more inland. That is based on science,” he told the meeting.

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Mr Ó Mongáin's explanation was not accepted by Carrowholly-based councillor John O'Malley who described the thinking that there was no frost on coastal roads as a 'load of bunkum'. Mr Ó Mongáin replied he was not suggesting this but the frost would not be as bad as inland areas.

The monthly meeting of the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District had heard calls from a number of the local councillors calling for more salt and grit to be made available to communities living along local roads.

Under Mayo County Council's winter maintenance programme, only the national roads and strategic regional roads are gritted when temperatures drop leaving the majority of roads in the county untreated.

Achill-based councillor Paul McNamara said that during previous cold snaps there was chaos in communities along local roads and wanted a contingency plan in place to prevent further chaos.

“The R319 runs through the heart of Achill and right off it are local roads and the school buses travel on all those local roads as do the Local Link buses. If we get a heavy week or ten days of frosty weather it will cause chaos so lets avoid the chaos and pick some of the local roads.

Mayo councillors want to prevent a repeat of chaos in previous winters

“I know it will be impossible to salt all the local roads but if we could salt where the school runs are going and where the bus services are that will be a start,” he suggested.

Louisburgh-based councillor Chris Maxwell also called for stockpiles of grit to be left at strategic locations for members of the local community to use as did Erris-based councillor Gerry Coyle.

Mr Ó Mongáin said that this was done last winter but in many cases they weren't touched at all.

“We will be happy to do that if faced with a significant cold snap,” he said.

Cllr McNamara stressed the need for a contingency plan being put in place saying that it will be the councillors who 'will be in the slaughter house' when constituents ring them demanding their local roads are gritted.