Council 'won't be returning' any more roads funding for Mayo
A senior official at Mayo County Council has assured councillors that the local authority intends to spend all money provided for roadworks under the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS).
The assurance came from Acting Head of Roads Conrad Harley at last week's meeting of the council's strategic policy committee (SPC) for roads. It emerged last month that the council had returned LIS funding of €235,000 after it was not spent on time.
Mr Harley said a new draft policy to deal with LIS roads in Mayo promises to streamline the process of funding and repairs. He told SPC members he was confident that no remaining LIS allocations would be sent back for 2025.
“As and from today all is on target to have everything completed this year. Nobody is raising any concerns and I am quietly confident we will come through this year with a complete spend.”
The new LIS policy makes councillors central to the LIS process so constituent needs can be met. Data on LIS allocations cannot be distributed directly to councillors but the system will allow them to track schemes in their areas.
In terms of ensuring that funding is used up on time, Mr Harley added: “All applications will be considered at the start of the year and we will try to have a completed list available by the time the process closes. Once we are caught up, it should not be that difficult to keep up.”
Cllr Patsy O’Brien said he and Cllr Richard Finn were taken to task by a constituent recently over LIS money being returned. He called for partial road improvements to be included where only some of the local contribution was available, which Mr Harley said could be teased out on a case-by-case basis. Cllr Finn and committee cathaoirleach Cllr Annie May Reape agreed, pointing out cases where some landowners were happy to pay the local contribution in order to gain road access onto their lands, even though the works would also benefit neighbours who did not contribute.
Cllr Reape welcomed the new policy, adding: “At least it means no money will be going back once we get it – that was the main issue."
