Navan"s roads are worst in county, new potholes report shows

The road network in Navan is 20 per cent worse than in the rest of the county, according to a new report shown to the Infrastructure Special Policy Committee of Meath County Council last week. The news will not come as a surprise to motorists in the Navan area but it is the first time that there has been an official report to back up all the tales of burst tyres, buckled wheel rims and lost hubcaps. The intricate engineering report broke down the quality of the roads in Navan compared to the rest of the county based on statistical readings using a number of indicators. Councillors in Meath will now be asked to help rebalance the situation by allocating additional funding to the Navan area, which includes the rural districts of Bohermeen, Dunderry, Robinstown, Kentstown, Skryne and Castletown. Meanwhile, a special meeting of the Navan Area Council has been called for today (Wednesday)to discuss the road works programme for the area. According to Infrastructure SPC chairman, Cllr Shane Cassells, it is essential that the roads programme addresses the 'diabolical' nature of the Navan roads and he has welcomed the report which, he says, provides them with 'hard data instead of just anecdotal remarks to make their case'. He said: 'Everyone can see that the Navan roads are in a dire state but now we can show the rest of the areas in real figures that they have fallen 20 per cent below standard. We will now seek additional funds for the roads over the next two years to start to get us back to an acceptable level and, even then, we will have a mountain of work to do before things are right. 'However, this will be a big start and I want to thank the director of infrastructure and all the team for putting a priority on the Navan area,' he said. Cllr Joe Reilly said the 'nightmare story of roads in Navan goes on' and the figures would come as no surprise to the people of the area. He pointed out that there were whole stretches of roads in Robinstown, Retaine and Shambo where there were not alone potholes, but entire stretches of roads that were broken up. Cllr Reilly has written to the council"s road safety officer asking for a safety audit of county roads, in particular the roads in proximity to the junctions leading to the M3. 'Many roads are in an extremely dangerous condition. Some roads have broken up completely, with huge craters that forces drivers to drive as low as 10km/h,' he claimed. 'The NRA construction of the M3 and the use of heavy vehicles on roads leading to the M3 have contributed hugely to the deterioration of the roads. They must contribute to the reconstruction of the those roads,' he said. 'Road safety and reducing the numbers of people killed and injured in road accidents has been a central policy plank of Government. The dangerous state of the county roads is totally at odds with Government policy.' Cllr Reilly pointed out that many motorists had suffered huge financial losses as a result of damage to their cars but, by law, they are not entitled to financial compensation. Cllr Jim Holloway said he had never seen local roads in such a disastrous state. He recalled that the council"s road restoration programme was initiated by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government in 1995 with the express purpose of repairing and restoring county roads as a national asset. 'It is extraordinary that, after a spend of hundreds of millions of euro, the disintegration of these roads continues. The money required to do the job properly, money which was abundant during the 12 years of Fianna Fail Government, was not directed to Meath. It is clear that waste on a massive scale resulted. I can stand over this assertion because, where sufficient funds were made available to do the job properly, the restoration of the roads worked. 'We are now in a crisis situation, where the priority has shifted to gambling taxpayers" money in propping up banks where the chiefs were nothing short of delinquent,' Cllr Holloway added.