‘These are roads that should be maintained by the council but are riddled with potholes and just falling away’

Appalling road conditions in north Meath are causing major problems for local employers, workers and residents, many of whom face weekly repair bills for damaged cars, vans and lorries.

The roads in the area around Ballinlough, Oldcastle, Dromone, Moylagh, Kilskyre and Crossakiel are in a dreadful state and are not getting their fair share of funding for roadworks, according to Deputy Johnny Guirke.

He has called for the scrapping of the county council's proposed three-year roads programme for the Kells Municipal District.

"The three-year programme is grossly unfair to the Ballinlough, Crossakiel and Oldcastle area, where we have some of the worst roads in the country.

"The area I am talking about is around one third of the Kells electoral area. The programme proposes to do 55 roads over the next three years, but there are only five of those in that huge area."

The three-year roads programme is a schedule of work on what are called local and county roads and are the responsibility of the county council. National and regional roads are the responsibility of the National Roads Authority.

"The roads here are shocking. Roads that should be maintained by the council are riddled with potholes and just falling away.

"This is an area that creates a lot of employment, but local businesses, workers and lorry drivers are very fed up with the state of the roads," Deputy Guirke said.

Local lorry driver, Eamonn Fitzsimons, said that he regularly has to replace springs or tyres - sometimes on a weekly basis because of the damage to his truck from driving on those roads.

"It is hugely expensive. Replacing a spring can cost €500 to €600. There is also a problem with mirrors getting broken where hedges haven't been cut back.

"They never seem to do anything about the roads up here - just patch them up and they are as bad as ever, a week later.

"There is a lot of industry, a lot of jobs and a lot of houses in this area, but the roads are in an awful state."

Gerry McDonnell employs eleven people in his IT business, Interactive Displays Ireland.

"The road to our premises is just like a lane, crumbling away at the sides. It is embarrassing when customers are coming to us and when lorries come, it is particularly bad. We also have our staff driving to work.

"The council fills the potholes the odd time, but it hasn't been resurfaced in 20 or 30 years.

"Even the road from Dromone to the old school is like a roller coaster.

"There is a lot of employment in this area. There are hundreds of people employed in various companies up here, but there has been very little investment in our roads."

Deputy Guirke said it is also a nightmare for local residents.

"There are 100 houses in St Brigid’s Terrace in Oldcastle and the road there is like a laneway - it is unbelievable. This road is extremely dangerous for elderly people and impossible for anyone in a wheelchair and nothing will be done to it for the next three years.

"We seem to have some of the worst roads in the county and in the Kells electoral area, but we are not getting our fair share of investment in roads. Some of these roads are in such a bad state that they look as if they are going nowhere, but they are actually serving a lot of homes, a lot of local industry and farms. We have a lot of factories in this area and hundreds of jobs.

"The worst roads in the county are in what is called the 1-4 catgegory. We have many roads in this area in that category that are being ignored, while other roads, classed as being in better condition, but nearer to Kells are included in the roads programme.

"Some of the roads that are earmarked for work over the next three years are in much better condition than the roads up here. Why do we not count? Do we have to go and picket the council in order to get things done," he asked,

"There is no fairness in the way the programme is drawn up.

"I don't know how councillors can stand over a road programme like this and leave out such a large part of the electoral area," he said.

"These are some of the worst roads in the county - they are in such bad shape. When they fill in any potholes, any bit of frost or rain, leaves the roads in even worse condition."

"We are talking about one third of the Kells electoral area - if we were to get even a quarter of the funding, we could have work done on 13 roads, instead of five."

Deputy Guirke said that a seperate issue is the fact that Meath gets so much less funding for roads, per capita, than many other counties.

Cllr Michael Gallagher said there is a lot of anger in the Oldcastle area at the roads programme. "It is a bad deal and the programme needs to be fairer," he said.

The cathaoreach of Meath County Council, Cllr Sean Drew, a councillor for the Kells electoral area, said that the three-year roads programme has not been adopted yet and there is still a process to go through.

A spokesperson for Meath County Council said the roads programme had been submitted to the Department of Transport for approval, following consultation with members of all six municipal districts.