Laois County Council has no cash for Mountmellick paths 'in desperate state'
Housing estate's footpaths serve hundreds of children walking to school
Laois County Council gets limited Government cash to fix footpaths in Mountmellick and elsewhere, a senior official has stated.
Footpaths are "in a desperate state" at the entrance to a group of housing estates in the town, including a council built estate Kirwan Park.
So reports Fianna Fáil Cllr Paddy Bracken who said "an awful lot of pedestrians are going to school from there, there are a lot of houses there".
The single entrance serves houses in Kirwan Park, Harbour Court, Cullenwood, Cullenbeg Park, Silverbrook and Silverwood.
Cllr Bracken tabled a motion to the March meeting of Borris-in-0ssory Mountmellick Municipal District asking the council to replace the paths on both sides of the entrance.
The district engineer has agreed to meet on site to discuss what repairs are required.
Cllr Bracken asked Director of Services Donal Brennan if there is money set aside for footpaths in the district.
Mr Brennan confirmed the limited cash.
"We get grants from the Department of Transport for blacktop [road] maintenance, not paths. That has to come out of your own budgets.
"There is no external subsidy from road maintenance. The only budget is the councillors' discretionary budget. Some paths are done when there is a road improvement, or under Active Travel funding," he said.
Each of the six councillors in the Municipal District gets a yearly budget of public money to spend on projects of their choosing. They each get about €35,000 for community projects, road repairs, streetlight and footpath works.