TD claims Govt cuts prevented icy roads from being gritted

Meath Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee claimed this week that numerous students failed to get to school in the past week because roads in many areas of the county were not gritted. He said roads were not being treated for icy conditions because local authorities could no longer afford it. He has submitted Dail questions on the subject to Minister for Transport and Meath TD Noel Dempsey. The Meath Chronicle has this week received numerous complaints about poor maintenance of more minor roads in the icy conditions prevalent for the last two weeks. There were at least four vehicles damaged in separate accidents over two days on the Boyne Road out of Navan and scores of other accidents around Trim and north Meath. Mr Dempsey himself issued a reminder to all local authorities asking them to ensure that 'an adequate level of winter road maintenance is undertaken in their areas'. The minister asked that special attention is paid to gritting roads where there is heavy traffic in order to reduce the maximum number of accidents possible. 'A this time of year, when icy roads are a particular problem for motorists, it is critically important that local authorities actively grit national and regional roads. The safety of motorists is of paramount importance and every effort must be made to keep our roads as safe as possible,' he said. Shane McEntee said that there was a 'massive' cash shortfall in the local authorities as a result of Government cutbacks. He said that while Minister Dempsey had said he had allocated funds for winter maintenance to the local authorities through the National Roads Authority, it was still a fact of life that their overall funding had been cut. The FG TD said there had been numerous accidents around the country which were not the fault of drivers. 'My understanding is that busy roads are not being gritted to the same extent this year because of the funding shortage,' he said. 'Of course, it is not so long ago that men with shovels operated from the rear of lorries and spread grit in icy conditions. That has now gone for health and safety considerations and a gritter must now be used. The NRA provides the local authorities with funding which is specifically used for national primary roads, with an understanding that additional funds will be made available at local level to cater for all the key routes,' he said yesterday (Tuesday). His understanding is that many local authorities were suffering cash shortages and gritting was one area which had fallen by the wayside. He blamed the Fianna Fail Government for 'blowing the boom' and starving local authorities of funds and accused the authorities of 'gambling with people"s lives'. He called on the Minister for Transport to ensure that guidelines for road gritting were being enforced. Green Party candidate for next year"s local elections, Brian Flanagan, called for footpaths around churches, schools and Our Lady"s Hospital, Navan, to be gritted. He said that pedestrians were being forced out onto the roads in areas where icy footpaths presented hazards. The issue has also been raised by Cllr Noel Leonard who complained that, on Tuesday of last week, at least two accidents delayed traffic on the inner relief road in Ratoath because of icy conditions. Icy road conditions outside St Paul"s National School and Ratoath College last week led to a spate of accidents along Ratoath"s inner relief road. In one incident, a parent"s car slid on the ice of the raised cobble-lock speed bump and hit a protective steel barrier. On another occasion, a parent crossing the road fell hard on the same cobble-lock speed bump, suffering minor injuries. The ice also made the school inaccessible to parents and grandparents with mobility issues, due to the high kerb outside the school, according to local election candidate, Regina Doherty. 'The council said that the stretch near St Paul"s NS wasn"t on their gritting map. It must be added now, before a small child is caught up in a serious accident,' she said. 'The safety study presented by the Meath County Council in the month"s prior to opening the road to heavy through-traffic didn"t even acknowledge the existence of St Paul"s School and the safety measures outside the school are inadequate,' she said. 'If there had been a proper planning process over the past decade, the outer relief road would have been open before the inner-relief road, to protect residents.' Ratoath resident Damian Kearns said the road was in a terrible condition last week and, even though the traffic was bumper-to-bumper, the road was like an ice rink. 'The pedestrian crossings are even more dangerous and a lady slipped and fell while crossing with her child and landed on top of the child,' he said. Local councillor Nick Killian raised the issue at a Dunshaughlin Area meeting last week and was told because it was a new road, the inner relief road had not been on the list for gritting, but this would be rectified for future gritting in the area. Councillors at the meeting had expressed concern at the state of many local roads in recent weeks. They were told that the council gritted national and regional roads, but not county roads. The Kildalkey Road and Dunderry Road out of Trim should have been gritted during the recent cold weather, according to Trim Town Councillor Ray Butler, who said these roads had been especially dangerous for motorists. He said: 'The Kildalkey Road and Dunderry Road were treacherous. The gritters go out and have certain routes but don"t do those roads. My argument is that if Meath County Council gives planning permission for houses, there are lots of people living there, and when the roads are treacherous, we should grit the roads. It is only by the grace of God that there hasn"t been a serious accident,' said Cllr Butler. Council response on road gritting Meath County Council says it grits 461km of national primary national secondary and regional roads across the county. These are the busiest and most heavily trafficked routes and represent 20 per cent of the total road network. In the first two weeks of December, 10 gritting vehicles were operational on 12 of the 14 nights covering over 7,000km of roads. On four of those nights, conditions dictated that salting was carried out twice in late evening and starting at 5am the following morning. 'The Icecast weather prediction system takes weather information from Met Eireann and from a number of weather stations in each county to provide a location-specific weather forecast each day. This forecast at each station includes detailed temperature and road condition data. The duty engineer downloads this information onto a laptop in mid-afternoon each day and makes a decision as to whether road-salting is needed. When required, pre-salting takes place just before freezing temperatures occur in order to prevent moisture freezing on the road,' said the council"s director of communications, Bill Sweeney. 'While this weather prediction system generally has a high degree of accuracy, it is not foolproof and unforeseen road conditions can occur.' Details of the roads that are salted can be found on the council"s website, www.meath.ie. 'I would appeal to all motorists to take extra care while driving in cold weather and to adjust their speed according to conditions,' added Mr Sweeney.