Councillors unhappy over rural roads scheme

A local councillor has called on Mayo County Council to carry out a goodwill gesture by filling all the potholes on residential rural roads that were maintained up to last year. 

During a lengthy discussion at the recent meeting of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District on the complex process around having roads taken in charge under the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS), Cllr Chris Maxwell said: “I am getting representations every day of the week about them. We have a load of roads that were previously tarred to a fantastic standard and maintained well up until last year, some under the LIS, but nobody will fill a pothole now. People cannot understand why they are not being maintained anymore and were never taken over by the council. That is not the fault of the people living along those roads who just want them looked after.

“I propose as a goodwill gesture for all these people that we go out and fill the potholes. Fill them next week or in the next few weeks and see where we go from there. Give the people the breathing space for what has happened through no fault of their own. It would give a bit of hope and show they are not forgotten and that some of the money they pay on motor and property tax is doing something. It would not cost too much and would raise the estimation of Mayo County Council in their eyes.” 

The call was supported by Cllr Brendan Mulroy and Cllr Paul McNamara, who suggested that the whole LIS process should be abolished.

“We have hundreds of those roads so the LIS situation won’t be solved by us. There used also be Gaeltacht grants available to tar the roads but that is no longer available. The government department has to look at it and give more funding. The problem is getting bigger every year and you would wonder should the LIS scheme be abolished altogether and a new scheme set up because it is not serving people.” 

Cllr Gerry Coyle said the LIS scheme is an “absolute disaster” and that councillors were unable to solve it, while Cllr Sean Carey requested quadruple current funding for the scheme in Mayo, saying: “I have no end of LIS applications and more are being submitted on a daily basis, so the problem is getting bigger and bigger while the funding is getting less over the years.” 

Cllr John O’Malley said the council was doing the best it could with the resources available.

“But if I lived to 120 so many of these roads still wouldn’t get done. It is not down to the council, it is down to the government to allocate more money and that’s the bottom line. You see them firing money here, there and everywhere but they won’t give it to the rural people and maybe if they don’t do that, we will let them know at the next election we are not satisfied with how they are doing things.” 

Area engineer Martin O’Grady said the council would consider the proposal to fill the potholes as a goodwill gesture.

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.