‘Nobody knew what was going on’ – Mayo councillors want better communication during severe weather events
During a lengthy discussion at the January meeting of Mayo County Council on gritting and the Winter Maintenance Programme, concerns were raised about the lack of communication between the council and elected members.
Councillors said they need timely information on weekends and outside regular office hours to keep their constituents informed about road conditions, including which areas had been gritted and which routes were being prioritised.
The issue was raised in relation to the Westport and Belmullet Municipal District, where Cllr Peter Flynn said he was unable to contact anyone from the council on Saturday, January 10, one of the worst days for icy conditions during the recent cold snap.
Cllr Flynn, Cathaoirleach of the Westport and Belmullet Municipal District, acknowledged that maintaining Mayo’s roads is a major logistical challenge, with a network spanning more than 6,717 km of national, regional, and local roads.
However, he said the scale of the task did not excuse what he described as serious flaws in communication over the weekend.
He told the meeting that he personally struggled to get information on gritting operations while receiving numerous calls from concerned residents in his area.
“Last Saturday morning nobody knew what was going on,” he said, “We have a communications department, we cannot shut down at 5pm and open up at 9am.”
“If we have a department that is supposed to be communicating it has to be available at critical times,” he added.
Cllr Flynn noted that similar issues arose during Storm Éowyn last year: “Again, there was a complete blank from Mayo County Council in terms of communications and yet we keep saying we have a communications department.”
He told councillors that he rang the Westport Council offices on Saturday morning but received “no response on three separate occasions”.
“We have serious flaws in our communications process,” he said, adding that the council should either have a communications team operating at weekends and out of hours, or not have one at all.
Cllr Flynn noted that councillors are often the first point of contact for the public during severe weather events, yet they are often left without the information needed to respond to their concerns.
He said basic operational updates, such as how many drivers are out, what routes they are gritting, and what difficulties they are facing, would allow councillors to relay accurate information back to their constituents.
Referring specifically to Westport, Cllr Flynn said that a workshop was held before Christmas in which councillors asked to be provided with the names of engineers on duty when severe weather was forecast over the weekend.
He said this request was refused by the Head of the Westport and Belmullet Municipal District.
“He said we are not entitled to that information and told us where to go in no uncertain terms - that is not acceptable,” he told the meeting.
He asked the council to address the issue as a matter of urgency, warning that while the most recent weather challenge was frost and icy roads, future events could be far more severe.
In response, Director of Services Catherine McConnell stressed that the council communications team does not operate solely from 9am to 5pm.
“There were plenty of social media posts, information given to the media, and to yourselves regularly over the weekend. I wouldn’t like anyone to get the impression that the team packs up and goes home. There was a lot of communication put out,” she said.
Ms McConnell also said there had been an administrative error with the call-out number for the Westport Municipal District.
Cllr Flynn replied that councillors in the Westport area had no contact details available and reiterated that they had been explicitly told they would not be provided with any. He called for a solution to be put in place for future emergencies.
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.