Gas lorry refuses delivery due to state of Achill village road

SCARY The Shore Road in Dooega, Achill. Pic: Edwin McGreal


Anton McNulty

A HOME delivery gas lorry refused to travel along a public road in an Achill village due to coastal erosion and fears over subsidence of the road.
The Shore Road in the village of Dooega on Achill Island was damaged by the winter storms in January 2014 and despite repair works at the time continues to be damaged by coastal erosion.
The damage to the narrow public road where up to a dozen homes are located has got so bad recently that large vehicles have refused to travel along it.
Last week, a lorry delivering gas to a home refused to travel along the road due to fears of subsidence. This led to local councillor Paul McNamara to call for Mayo County Council to apply for emergency funding for the road.
The Fianna FΡil councillor added that the situation had got so bad that a local person who has planning permission for a home is unable to start work because large construction lorries also refused to travel the road.
“The road was first damaged in 2014 and while it was initially repaired, the coastal erosion has got worse,” Cllr McNamara told The Mayo News.
“At the moment this road is only open to local traffic and heavy vehicles are not travelling along the road. Recently a gas lorry refused to deliver to a house along the road because it was unsafe. This is unacceptable and I am calling on Mayo County Council to immediately apply to the relevant government department for emergency funding to fix the road,” he said.

Report
The issue of the road in Dooega was raised by Cllr McNamara at last month’s meeting of the West Mayo Municipal District and was informed by Council officials that they will prepare a report for the next meeting at the end of November.
Cllr McNamara said the lack of work on the road was due to the OPW not including the parish of Achill in the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) programme for coastal protection.
He said areas in Achill like Dooega were not being identified for coastal protection which was leaving them vulnerable to storms in the future.
“Achill was not selected by the OPW for CFRAM because they felt it [coastal protection] was not needed at the time. They came to this conclusion eventhough Achill was badly affected by the storms in 2014. Coastal erosion is an ongoing problem for a lot of communities in Achill and because we were not included in the CFRAM report, the work is not being done,” he said.