Achill roads like dirt tracks - McNamara

ROADS FUNDING HAS BEEN CUT Cllr Paul McNamara.


Oisín McGovern

LOCAL roads in Achill have never been in a worse state, according to local county councillor Paul McNamara.
Speaking at yesterday’s (Monday) meeting of Westport/Belmullet Municipal District, Cllr McNamara demanded that the council request more money for the repair of local roads.
The Fianna FΡil councillor said wet weather and frost in late 2022 had done ‘untold damage to the local roads’, which were now in ‘an absolute terrible state’.
Cllr McNamara requested that the council ask for funding to strengthen local roads on the grounds of health and safety.
He said that he had received calls from three people who had destroyed car tyres after colliding with potholes in the Achill area.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the local roads in such a state,” Cllr McNamara told the meeting.
He said that that filling the potholes would only resolve the problem ‘for a week, maybe two’  until the next wet spell occurred.
“I am bewildered to see how we have gotten to this state with these local roads. Since I came into the council in 2014 I have been asking for more money for local roads, and yet they still continue to receive way less funding,” he said, adding the expenditure on local roads was down 60 percent over a two-year period.
Cllr McNamara said that the Achill area should be entitled to more spending on roads given its location along the Wild Atlantic Way.
“Roads that we are asking people to travel on are turning into dirt tracks. So I am asking the executive to please write to the Department [of Transport] as soon as possible to tell them that we need an extra allocation for our local and regional network this year … if we don’t we’ll end up in a terrible state in 2024.”
Head of Westport/Belmullet Municipal District Padraic Walsh said that the council would ‘love’ more funding but that they had to operate within their budget.
Mayo County County Council’s Director of Services Catherine McConnell said that prices of road materials had ‘gone through the roof’, adding that it was now becoming difficult for the council to price jobs from contractors.
Ms McConnell acknowledged that the local authority’s allocation had not increased to account for cost rises, but insisted it was ‘absolutely imperative’ that the council remain within its budget.
She said that the council would write to the Department of Transport to convey councillors’ concerns around the safety of local roads.