Councillor responds to road claims

Councillor responds to road claims


Edwin McGreal

Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Cllr John O’Malley has responded to an article in The Mayo News on April 8 last concerning a dispute over the upgrade of a road in Kilmeena.
The road in question is a private road which leads to two dwelling houses and also is a road on which Cllr O’Malley gains access to agricultural lands which he farms.
One of the householders on the road, Rose Coen, and a farmer who has access rights on the road, Michael Gannon, contacted The Mayo News to complain about the fact that Cllr O’Malley, who also has access rights on the road, would not sign, in his capacity as a farmer who uses the road, for council upgrade works under the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) for such roads. Any such road improvements cannot go ahead without the signature of at least two farmers who use the road.
In a letter to The Mayo News Cllr O’Malley wrote:
“It was stated that I was stopping the upgrade of a road at Knockboy, Kilmeena. I would like to clarify the situation. I sent a council engineer to inspect that road five years ago with the view of upgrading it under the LIS scheme. The engineer told me it would not qualify, as there was only one gate entrance off it.
“The terms and conditions of the LIS scheme clearly state there must be a need for at least two landowners with a herd number to access their land from such a road, to move livestock and machinery on and off their land. This is not the case as I am the only one who uses this road to gain access to my land. If the engineer were to qualify it for funding under the scheme, he could face serious charges from his superiors and possible dismissal from his position for misappropriating tax payers’ money and breaking the rules of the LIS scheme.
“If I, as a public representative knowing the terms and conditions of the scheme were to sign the LIS form, then I could be accused of asking the council to break the rules for my own benefit. If the road were to go ahead I could face more serious charges as those schemes are scrutinized by government departments for any breaches of rules of the scheme.
“It is not true for Michael Gannon to say he has a gate 12 yards up that road leading to his land. This is quite clear for anyone to see. However, if a gate hanging on two pillars was put along that road on Mr Gannon’s side, it would qualify as there would be two farmers then using the road.
“I was speaking with Ms Coen’s daughter some time ago, and I explained the road would not qualify under LIS, but if she contacted the council and if they agreed to take it over, I would gladly sign the consent form. I had that road brought up to a good standard at my own expense of 640 pounds, and if Ms Coen were to put a truck load of maintenance on it now it would leave it in a good condition for quite some time. I have no objection to that, and it is the most common sense approach at this time.
“Ironically, I had the same situation with a road outside Westport last year. I was willing to allocate funding to a road where there are three families with their children living. There was only one gate access to land although two farmers had land off the road. It didn’t qualify and it was not done,” he concluded.