Let communities grit roads, say councillors

SEVERAL county councillors have called for communities to be given salt and grit to apply during severe frost.

Speaking at yesterday's monthly meeting of the local authority, representatives from across the county lamented the lack of gritting for local roads and footpaths, with one claiming he would find ‘more salt on a burger’.

As part of this year’s winter services plan, Mayo County Council will grit 100 percent of national primary roads, 100 percent of secondary roads, 90 percent of regional roads and 5 percent of local roads.

This amounts to 21 routes served by over 60 staff covering 1,350 kilometres of the county’s road network, which is over 6,600 kilometres long.

Tom Gilligan, Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Roads, said the plan was designed to maximise the local authority’s resources.

A number of councillors told the meeting that schools and footpaths in their area were in a dangerous condition following a recent spell of frost.

“I know we can’t do every estate, but there are a number of estates that are located on hills and hollows, the people are trapped in there,” said Cllr Kilcoyne

“I know the main roads are being done, I know local roads are being done, but in housing estates, what are they paying their property tax [for]?

“You’d get more salt on a burger than would be spread in some of these places,” the Independent councillor added, before proposing a motion that estates be allocated with supplies of salt during severe frost.

Achill-based councillor Paul McNamara claimed that none of the local roads in his area were included in Mayo County Council’s winter service plan, saying that much of the spreading of salt and grit could be ‘farmed out’.

“We spent nearly €2 million on our greenway from Westport right down to Achill, and yet we can’t spend a couple of thousand euros on our local roads,” the Fianna Fáil councillor remarked.

Fine Gael councillors Michael Burke and Gerry Coyle said they received complaints from people regarding school transport during the recent spell of frost.

Cllr Burke said he received ten phone calls from people who were struggling to move out of an estate while Cllr Coyle said a bus nearly slipped off road during a school run near Carrowtighe recently.

Cllr Coyle said that there were people in areas with tractors and lime spreaders who would willingly apply salt and grit during cold weather.

“The salt is there, the people that are willing to put it out are there, and still we can’t do it. It’s an absolute disgrace,” said Cllr Coyle.

Following a discussion which ran for almost an hour, Tom Gilligan told councillors that supplies of grit could be given to the public during severe weather events.

Responding to a call from Cllr Mark Duffy, Mr Gilligan said Mayo County Council did not have the resources to include schools among the list of critical locations to be gritted during cold weather.

He said that salt spreading was ‘a fairly sophisticated procedure’ which required insurance and calibrated machinery.

The matter is to be discussed again at this Thursday’s meeting of Mayo County Council’s Roads SPC.