Mayo County Council’s government grants for the 2009 road work scheme were slashed in last week’s budget by €8 million, the Mayo Advertiser can reveal. This includes a €5.5 million reduction in the regional and local road restoration grant from €13.1 million to €7.6 million.
A special meeting of the council was called yesterday afternoon to discuss the reduction in road grants from €44.4 million to €36.4 million as a result of government budgetary cuts.
Labour Councillor Harry Barrett said the cuts would be disastrous for Mayo and has thrown the council into “a state of panic”.
Councillors in each of the seven areas may get an opportunity to go back to the drawing board to decide how to reallocate the grants but with the June elections looming time is running out for Mayo’s 31 councillors who will be fighting to have their patch looked after.
What this means is that many roads across the county will be left in a state of disrepair with pot holes and poor surfaces neglected.
The County Manager Des Mahon has warned that outdoor jobs and jobs in the roads design office may also be in jeopardy as less work will be carried out over the coming year. Joe Beirne, County Engineer, backed this up saying the road work scheme for the year would be completed in July meaning very little activity for the rest of the year.
The reduction in road grants for these local roads is a “disgrace” according to Cllr Barrett who spoke to the Advertiser ahead of yesterday’s meeting. The council had planned to carry out works on 26.1km of regional roads which has now been cut down to 9.2km and the planned works on 137km has been cut to 49km. Also the specific improvement grant for works in Knocklehaugh, Link Road Castlebar, Claremorris/Cloonfad and the Kilkelly relief road has been cancelled.
Cllr Paddy McGuinness accused the County Manager of using “flowery language” when he referred to possible job losses saying it looked like redundancies were coming down the line.
