Residents on Laois road to wait years for repair works
Residents living on a Laois road will have to wait a long time before any repair works will be carried out on the road which has been described as “abysmal.”
Laois County Council has been requested to carry out urgent road repairs on the Cappagh South road in Mountrath .
Issues with the Cappagh South road have been raised numerous times before and Councillor Conor Bergin was the latest councillor to bring it to the attention of Laois County Council at the recent Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick MD meeting.
Residents living along the road contacted Cllr Bergin to express their concerns with the state of the road which the Fine Gael councillor said has “deteriorated a lot.”
“It is one which should have been included in this year’s roads programme and it’s disappointing that it wasn’t because it has gotten bad,” Cllr Bergin told the council.
Laois County Council said the Area Office will continue to carry out routine road maintenance work on the Cappagh South road, depending on budgets and resources.
Department funding is prioritised for heavier trafficked routes such as regional, local primary and secondary roads, rather than roads such as this which is a cul-de-sac.
They suggested that residents on the road should consider submitting a Community Improvement Scheme (CIS) application.
However, Cllr Bergin said that CIS funding takes too long to be delivered with an application potentially taking “a couple of years from the time it’s put in.”
“They really can’t afford to wait on this. It’s absolutely abysmal the condition of it now,” he argued.
Having previously raised the motion as well, Cllr James Kelly backed Cllr Bergin and agreed that a CIS application would be too slow.
“Parts of this road are now gone down to the rock. I’ve been speaking to people down there and they don't feel that the CIS is something they have to apply for,” Cllr Kelly said.
“It will be at least 9 to 10 years before anything is done with this road if it is not put into one of these programmes for 2027.”
Cllr Bergin told the council that he hopes a review of the road can be done for next year’s programme as it has gone beyond any short term fixes such as patching.,
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