Appeals to have busy Mayo road gritted are rejected
Fresh efforts to get the busy section of road treated this winter have fallen on deaf ears.
Pleas to Mayo County Council to grit a busy Mayo road this winter have fallen on deaf ears.
Cllr Michael Loftus had implored the local authority to grit the busy Crossmolina to Ballycastle Road, but the council says there is not enough funding to carry out the work.
The Crossmolina councillor was livid at the decision to exclude the 22km stretch of road from the winter maintenance programme. He previously raised the issue at a meeting of the council and repeated efforts to include the R315 road in the winter plan have so far been ignored.
“I have got absolutely nothing out of them," he told the . "At the budget meeting, I tried to get another €25,000 out of them to rent a machine in Ballina, rent a van and have the gritter on the back of it. The gritter would have cost €10,000. I really wanted to try and get that road done and I have got no soot out of them at all."
Cllr Lofus fears motorists will be left stranded should another cold snap hit.
“All I have been told is that they are looking at the yard, whatever that means, and making it more efficient. But that’s not helping anybody who is stuck on the Ballycastle Road. Even last week it was very bad,” he stated.
Cllr Loftus said attempts to secure a smaller gritter in Ballina failed as it is fully booked up.
“It’s not good enough. The school buses won’t go down that road to bring the kids to school. The knock-on effect of that is parents won’t be able to go to work because they have to stay at home and mind the children. It’s really wrong that it’s not been done. But they are not listening, unfortunately."
The council ordinarily treats 1,100 km of road across 21 treatment routes which equates to 100% of the national primary network, 100% of the national secondary network, 82% of regional roads and 3% of the local road network. During extended severe winter weather, stockpiles of grit may be made available for use by the public when resources allow. These stockpiles will be placed at strategic locations.
