Anger as roads disintegrating around the county - Kelly

The quality of tarmacadum used in repairing some roads around the county has been called into question after one councillor claimed that, in some instances, parts of the road had 'disintegrated' after just two years.

Fianna Fáil's Clifford Kelly made the claim at the recent meeting of the Bailieborough/Cootehill Municipal District meeting in the Courthouse in Cootehill. He asked if quality tests are being carried out on the bitumen and tarmacadam being used on roads in the county.
“There should be some way of testing bitumen and tarmacadam to make sure we are getting the quality we are paying for in this county,” said the Kingscourt representative.
He cited a number of examples. For example, he claimed to have taken several phone calls in relation to a road in the Mountain Lodge area, which had only been done recently, yet there are now potholes appearing in the surface again. Cllr Kelly also contended that, some time back, the stone had disappeared off the Bitumen within a couple of months in the Muff area.
The manager of the Bailieboro/Cootehill MD, Jim McQuaid, said it was his understanding that samples of bitumen are taken and sent away to an independent laboratory for testing at the beginning of every season.
Cllr Kelly acknowledged those samples are taken at the start of the season but asked if any samples are taken when roadworks are ongoing at different times during the year.
The chairman of the MD, Paddy McDonald (SF), said he had to agree with Cllr Kelly. He pointed out that the Main Street in Bailieboro was done three years ago. However, the junctions coming off the Main Street onto the Kingscourt Road and onto the Shercock Road were unravelling. However, he acknowledged that some patching work had taken place.
The Director of Services, Joe McLoughlin, committed to report back to the next council meeting on the issue.
Cllr Kelly warned that potholes are becoming a serious problem again - again giving an example, this time at the top of the Rocks Road in Kingscourt.
Mr McLoughlin, once again, reminded the elected members of the funding levels for roadworks. “We are operating since 2009 with 50 per cent of the funds we had previous to that. This has huge implications for our ability as a local authority to deal with the issues that are common place on the roads. We have done very well to contain the situation – we have a serious problem and a deepening problem. It is not going to get better until there is funds provided by central government or by the local authority. 
The local authority's only resource to do that is through raising property tax,” he outlined.
“If people are prepared to live with an increase in property tax, we would gladly assign that additional revenue into our roads fund. As of now we have a very limited budget in terms of addressing the level of issues that are coming up on a constant basis,” added Mr McLoughlin.

Angry

Cllr Kelly said that people are angry that their motor tax is being transferred into Irish Water, instead of being spent on the roads, are feared a return to the 'pothole county' tag of the 80s.
Mr McLoughlin countered that the county still has a debt of €200billion and is costing €7-€8 billion per annum to service. “In that environment we are going to have a continuing situation where we won't have resources to address the issues that are coming at us,” he said.
'We are long from going back to the eighties and I don't think it is helpful to even bring the comparison to the table at this stage,” chastised Mr McLoughlin.
Disagreeing, Cllr Kelly said: 'I see it right around me. I can take you on a tour and show them to you. There is a problem.”