The Galway City Council has enough sand to ensure the main roads into Galway city and around the city centre are gritted and kept ice free for this weekend and further supplies of sand and salt are on the way.
The unprecedented cold snap looks set to continue with roadways set to remain dangerous due to frost and ice. As a result the Galway city and county councils will have to continue gritting roads throughout the weekend and early into next week.
There will be concern in county areas with the admission yesterday by the Galway County Council’s roads and transport department that it may have only enough sand and salt for gritting roads to cover the next 24 to 36 hours.
However Galway city is in a better position to cope with the severe frost and ice as it has enough supplies to cover the entire weekend. Even if the weather deteriorates the council’s ability to grit roads will not be affected as further supplies of sand are due to reach the council today.
On Wednesday the council began gritting the areas around the city’s schools in advance of students returning to classes this morning.
Ciarán Hayes, the council’s director of services for transportation and infrastructure, paid tribute to the work of council staff in gritting the main roads each morning.
“With the exception of Christmas Day, staff have been out throughout the holiday period, in very severe weather, including at 9pm on Christmas Eve, salting and gritting the roads,” Mr Hayes told the Galway Advertiser.
“Staff are out at 5.30am each morning gritting roads and that will continue until the weather improves. This has been the most extended period of cold since 1963 and if the weather deteriorates there will be further problems. Even then we will be out gritting and salting the roads.”
However the council has come in for much criticism from both the public and councillors for its handling of the situation. While the main roads have been gritted, smaller roads, roadways into and out of the city’s many estates, and footpaths have not been gritted, and many - particularly during the Christmas period - were dangerous for pedestrians and drivers due to the icy conditions.
In response Mr Hayes said there are only enough resources to be able to look after the main roads and the city centre.
“We have been able to deal with some estates but we have hundreds of estates throughout the city and this means it’s not possible to grit an salt every estate road and footpath,” he said. “We have to prioritise the main routes and each of these has to be gritted every day. If we concentrated on just the estates there would not be enough to deal with the main roads.”
Fine Gael councillor Pádraig Conneely has described the Galway City Council’s emergency response to the severe icy weather as a “shambles”.
He said the council’s attempts to grit the roads and stave off the worst extent of the frost was “a feeble attempt to deal with a serious freeze”. He said Eyre Square was like “an ice rink” and accused City Hall of showing “no leadership”, leaving Galwegians “naked and exposed” to the dangerous conditions.
Mr Hayes said he was “disappointed” with Cllr Conneely’s statement and accused the former mayor of making “no effort to determine what the emergency response has been”.
He said: “With regard to Eyre Square and the city centre I have been around there most days and I can verify it is not like an ice rink and that it has been suitable for pedestrians. Problems will arise if the weather deteriorates but I would like to compliment the staff who have been out at all hours to deal with the main routes and pedestrianised areas.”
However the The Mayor of Galway Cllr Declan McDonnell has called on the council to carry out an urgent review of the gritting of roads and footpaths.
“While main roads have been gritted, the paths and roads in estates around the city have not and this is causing huge problems for the elderly and those trying to get to work,” he said. “In the current cold snap, this is not acceptable as some people have not left their homes in weeks, particularly the elderly who are afraid of slipping on footpaths and breaking bones.”
This week the city council received an increase in their local government fund from the figures that they adopted in the 2010 budget. The increase was in the region os €560,000 and Mayor McDonnell is calling for some of the money to be put aside for gritting of more roads and footpaths around the city.
He also wants the council to be “more forceful” with management companies and insist they grit estates across the city that are still under their control.
