Regional roads are 'poor relation' when it comes to State funding
Regional roads are the 'poor relation' when it comes to funding, according to Cllr Damien Ryan.
A local councillor has said that regional roads are the county’s ‘poor relation’ when it comes to the allocation of funding.
Cllr Damien Ryan told last week’s meeting of Mayo Co Council's Roads and Transportation Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) that more and more funding is being put towards Active Travel and Greenway projects and it is being diverted from regional roads funding.
County Mayo was allocated €36.6 million in funding for regional roads this year, a slight reduction from last year’s figure of €37.2 million.
“Greenway and Active Travel fundings are being set up to compete with national allocations and funding has been averted towards those projects away from regional roads. Our regional roads are the poor relation,” said Cllr Ryan.
“Mayo has a huge kilometre network of regional roads. In our council budget, we had to ringfence money to deal with regional roads and additional funding needs to be sought for regional roads.”
The council's Head of Roads Paul Dolan concurred with the long-serving councillor.
“We are underfunded with regards to regional roads. There is a large amount needed to be invested in regional roads," said Mr Dolan.
It was agreed that a letter of support for additional funding for regional roads would be sent from the SPC to the Department of Transport.
