McDermott lobbies for increase in roads funding for North Offaly

At the November meeting of Offaly County Council, Cllr. Robert McDermott lobbied for an increase in the roads budget for North Offaly.

He pointed out that Edenderry receives the smallest share of the roads budget as it is based on the road kilometres in each electoral area, and said a different way of looking at the allocations needs to be examined.

With North Offaly having experienced “a huge increase in its population” since the last census, and further growth anticipated, Cllr McDermott told the meeting that population increase “must be factored into roads funding” and called for the setting up of a special and separate fund for roads upkeep in North Offaly.

“Many of our roads are built over peatlands which results in road repairs lasting an average of five years when the norm in other areas is 20 years” he said, adding that the North Offaly area has also seen the installation of the “bulk of the wind farms in the Midlands” which has created increased heavy goods vehicle traffic on lower grade roads.

“The recent granting of planning permission to Oxigen will potentially see another 90,000 tonnes travelling over these roads. The damage to the roads was all too obvious this summer with the collapse of the bridge on the R400. As a result of this, the road was closed causing huge disruption and at the same time increased heavy goods vehicles on local roads around Garr, Knockdrin and Croghan.  These roads were never designed for this heavy traffic and now, as a result, they urgently need repairing” said Cllr McDermott.

He also said there is “mounting concern” across North Offaly at the number of heavy good vehicles crossing over the Grand Canal bridges, and said they were never designed to carry such heavy loads considering they were originally constructed “a couple of centuries ago.”

Cllr McDermott appealed to the coucil to “ seriously consider the introduction of a special fund for the repair and upkeep of all roads in North Offaly.”