Sligo Councillors insist link road must be upgraded and included in winter maintenance programme

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

Two motions came before the recent meeting of Ballymote-Tubbercurry Municipal District in relation to the L1502 which is a main artery for the N4 into Ballymote, Tubbercurry and other parts of South Sligo with Cllr Dara Mulvey calling for more to be done to have the road included on the Council’s winter maintenance programme while Cllr Gerard Mullaney called for the road to be upgraded to regional status.

Addressing his motion Cllr Mulvey criticised the TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland) for their lack of “foresight” in relation to the volumes of traffic on the N4.

"Anyone who was on that road before the new N4, it is a completely different road now. It is not the width needed. Are we going to keep on with the same routes (for gritting) that we have every year?”

Cllr Gerard Mullaney’s motion called on “Sligo County Council to give a progress report on the efforts to upgrade L1502 to Regional status.”

Speaking on behalf of his motion, Cllr Mullaney described the road as “An absolute danger,” adding, “The volume of traffic has increased, it's a very dangerous stretch of road. I had this motion down 15 months ago, what have Sligo County Council done in the mean time?”

The meeting heard from Council Engineer Paul O’Rourke in relation to the issue of the road being gritted, who said, “We are at capacity in terms of resources, manpower. Small gritters are the best port of call at the moment.”

Insisting that he wasn’t pointing the finger of blame at individual staff members, Cllr Mullaney said, “I would like to compliment the road staff for the way they looked after the roads in bad weather.”

Cllr Barry Gallagher expressed sympathy for the Council staff trying to cover a vast area during periods of bad weather saying, “We need to look at these. You could be two hours trying to cover the region in good weather.”

Cllr Paul Taylor voiced the opinion that all Councillors would like to see more roads treated during adverse weather spells saying, “We’re all in the same boat, I want to see Monasteraden done as well.

Article Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.