The never ending issue of pot holes in the roads around the county raised its head again this week at the September meeting of Ballina Electoral Area. Fine Gael councillor Eddie Staunton told the meeting this week, “potholes are my major problem, it’s getting worse and worse by the week. Is there anything that we can do, because we get some filled and then they are back again. It’s getting close to winter now and if we have one like the last two we’ll have serious problems.” Cllr Staunton’s issue was backed by his party colleague Cllr Jarlath Munnelly who said, “we need to have this sorted by now, because come November or December we won’t be able to get it sorted if the cold weather comes like we’ve seen before.”
Paul Dolan, acting senior engineer for Mayo County Council told the members: “In regards to potholes we are just coming to the end of the summer season where the concentration is on the road strengthening and surfacing schemes. Last January and February we had a huge drain on our resources because of the cold snap. We will target as many roads as we can, but I can not guarantee that we will get to some of them, it just won’t be possible to get to them all, because of our resources.”
Committee to write to Minister again
Fianna Fáil councillor Annie May Reape has asked the council executive to write again to the Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar to arrange a meeting with the members of the committee to talk about the N26. Cllr Reape asked during the meeting if the council had received any word from the Minister to a letter it had sent before the summer break. She was informed that the council had received a acknowledgement letter from the Department but as of yet, had not received anything else. Cllr Reape asked the council write again to the Minister to seek a meeting.
