Castlebar Town Council has allocated €216,000 to be spend on the roadworks programme in the town this year. The programme was down for approval at the monthly meeting of Castlebar Town Council last week.
When the item came up it was proposed by Fianna Fáil councillor Blackie Gavin and seconded by Independent councillor Frank Durcan. However, Fine Gael councillor Noreen Heston raised the issue of postponing the adoption of the scheme until there was some work done on the old Moneen Road, which goes from the NCF stores down to the link on to the N5. “I’d like the town engineer or anyone to take a walk down that road and see what it’s like,” she said. “There is an estimate of €25,000 for carrying out the work and there is €16,000 allocated for it in the budget. The road is in a terrible state, and we need to do it.” Cllr Frank Durcan told the meeting that, “we need to get on with the work because we are coming into fine weather and we can’t waste another month.”
In response to Cllr Heston’s request to postpone the adoption of the scheme to see could the other money be found for the Moneen Road, town engineer Sean Higgins told the meeting: “The problem I have with the Moneen Road that Cllr Heston is talking about is that the NCF have permission for a development for the past two years. I have been holding off on some of the works until they get going because it could cause further damage to the road. I have spoken to them and they have said that they were planning to get the work underway this year and we will look at the other works then when it’s done”.
Cllr Gavin told the meeting that he agreed with the engineer. “There is no point in reinstating the road then it having to be ripped up again because it was damaged,” he said.
Cllr Heston then asked if there would be a saving to the council if they carried out all the work themselves rather than getting contractors in to do it. The engineer responded that the council will do most of the work themselves, including the footpaths and the drainage, but for the surfacing work the council had to bring in contractors because they don’t have the machinery and manpower to do that themselves.
