‘Deplorable’ condition of Tipperary road highlighted amid calls for increased roads funding
A Tipperary councillor has hit out at the “deplorable” condition of a road in the county, calling on Tipperary County Council to seek more funding from central Government to ensure more roads can be maintained.
That was the call from Fianna Fáil councillor Kieran Bourke at the June meeting of the Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District, calling for works to be carried out on the roadway in the Mill Park estate in Grangemockler.
Speaking at the meeting Cllr Bourke said that the road in the estate had gone beyond patching and that serious works were needed there.
"This has gone beyond patching, nothing has been done with it for 40 or 50 years, and I ask you to go out and look at it,” Cllr Bourke said to the district engineer.
"It’s deplorable, and we were told at a workshop that there’s no funding at all being considered for road networks within housing estates, they’re just not being funded from central Government sufficiently to carry out works and they’re prioritising red roads. There’s no consideration whatsoever for for housing estates,” he hit out.
"It’s shocking, these are people who live there, their children play there, they pay their local property tax, they’re entitled to have the roads done,” Cllr Bourke added.
On a visit to the Mill Park estate, Cllr Bourke told the Irish Independent that the estate is made up of a mix of county council tenants and houses in private ownership.
"Roads like these, even though these are their [the county council] responsibility, they’re ignoring them, so they’re going to get worse and worse,” Cllr Bourke said.
"The local engineer accepts that it’s probably the worst around, but he says his hands are tied,” the Fianna Fáil councillor added.
A Tipperary County council (TCC) workshop on roads and transportation funding was held recently, with documents seen by the Irish Independent showing that there are concerns about the council’s ability to maintain roads due to construction inflation.
There are fears within Tipperary County Council that if more funding for upkeep of roads across the county isn’t allocated by central Government, service levels will fall, meaning the council won’t be able to afford the upkeep of some roads.
The local authority are calling on the Government to increase funding for roads by an additional €1billion per year, which would have a significant impact on TCC’s ability to maintain the roads within their remit.
Cllr Bourke meanwhile, is calling on the council to explore different funding streams available to them to get the road at Mill Park resurfaced once and for all, saying that it was clear that the funding wasn’t going to come from the council’s roads budget.