Councillor claims overtime ban leads to ‘rushed jobs’

Councillor claims overtime ban leads to ‘rushed jobs’


Anton McNulty

The ban on overtime for outdoor council staff leads to ‘rushed jobs’ according to an Independent councillor who claims it could be a reason for problems affecting newly surfaced roads in the county.
The comments were made by Cllr Michael Holmes at last week’s meeting of the West Mayo Municipal District committee where complaints over the quality of surface dressing on roads were raised.
Many roads in the region have deteriorated very quickly after they were surface dressed last year and will have to be resurfaced again, the meeting heard. A consultancy firm PMS have been engaged by Mayo County Council to investigate why the surface deteriorated with a report expected to be released in August.
The possible reasons for the fault were aired at the meeting with Cllr Holmes claiming that the moratorium in overtime means that the work is not carried out satisfactory.
“In the past workers would continue in fine weather until 8pm but that day is gone now with work finished at three to be back in the depot. Out of that the job is rushed, there is no doubt about that. There is not enough time then to roll the chips properly,” he said.
Council officials also informed the councillors that the same materials were being used for this year’s surface dressing despite last year’s problems. This was questioned by Sinn Féin’s Cllr Rose Conway Walsh who expressed her concern that the same source of materials was being used.
“This is a health and safety issue. When the surface was put down a lot of the tars and chips came off the road and left the surface with no grip at all. I am very concerned that we are using the same material as last year,” she said.
However, Padraig Walsh, a senior engineer with the council said that multiple factors could have caused a failure and it was not ‘cut and dried’ that the problem lay with the chips and bitumen.
Director of Services, Martin Keating said the council have been open and upfront since the issue of the surface dressing failure were first raised but felt some comments have been unfair.
He said the council had carried out their own investigation and had now employed an independent consultancy firm to investigate the problems. He concluded that they will have to wait and see what the reports findings will be before they can act upon them.