The condition of the roads in the Ballina area after the recent cold spell led to a lengthy discussion at this week’s Ballina electoral area meeting. “The national roads inspector was in the area yesterday (Tuesday ), to see the damage that has been caused,” senior engineer for Mayo County Council Noel Burke told the meeting. “We have asked him to allow us to be as flexible as possible with the local road grants that we have applied for. We hope they will let us be discretionary on where we spend the money rather than just rely on the list of priorities we sent up before the cold spell set in.”
Mr Burke went on to say that the cost of treating roads during the cold snap has yet to be fully seen in relation to what will be left from the budgets for this year. “We’ve spent a lot of money already on the gritting and salting of roads over the past few weeks, and that will all have to come out of our maintenance budget for 2010.”
Fine Gael councillor Seamus Weir told the meeting that in his local area the weather had a devastating effect on the local roads.
Ballina Town Council Mayor Cllr Mary Kelly raised the issue of potential liability for the council if someone damages a car hitting a pothole on the roads. She told the meeting that Fine Gael TD Michael Ring was on local radio encouraging people to send in bills to the council if they damaged their car after hitting potholes in the road. The councillor wanted to know if the council is liable for the damage caused and if it would be inundated with claims from people.”
Mr Burke replied: “There are legal issues involved in this, the council is not going to pay every bill that comes in. Sometimes the council will because it is our fault, due to work not being done properly, and it is up to the person claiming to prove this. But as recent events have proved every pothole in the county is not because of our work, the weather has caused these issues to arise, not the council.”
