More roads need to be added to gritting routes says Cllr Martin Farren

A plea has been made for extra funding to help deal with roads not included on Inishowen's gritting route.

The matter was raised at the recent meeting of Donegal County Council when Cllr Martin Farren called on the body to seek to secure extra funding from central Government to purchase more vehicles with the aim of extending the road gritting programme.

He praised the council's road section staff on their recent efforts during the recent spells of bad weather but said he felt more needed to be done.

"They kept all the main routes open and did a tremendous job. The fellows that drive the lorries are out morning, noon and night doing work that can at times be very dangerous but unfortunately, I feel this does not go far enough.  More kilometres within our county need to be gritted and to do that we need extra funding for more lorries and more men."

He pinpointed two areas, the crossroads at Greencastle to the bottom of Shrove and Ballinacrae chapel to the Glen which he said were particularly dangerous in bad weather. He said emergency services or school buses would have found it very difficult to get to these areas as the roads were very bad.

He added he was afraid there could be injuries or even a fatality if these roads were not improved.

"I know it's difficult for the council executive to pinpoint and secure funding but this needs to be addressed," he said.

His motion was seconded by Cllr Nicholas Crossan

Director of roads and transportation, Bryan Cannon, said he understood the sentiment behind the motion. He explained that the council gritted approximately 1,140 km or 18% of the public roads with 21 designated gritting routes across the county.

He added when it came to an extension of the gritting programme a lot of different issues needed to be examined including the time for a lorry to grit a route, with a two-hour treatment window generally allowed; the volume of the gritting equipment, the volume of grit required at the various spread rates, the length of the route, the availability of trained and competent staff to fill the winter maintenance rota and the availability of an alternative route that is gritted.

"Not every non-gritted route has an alternative gritted route.

He added if the motion was passed the council would seek additional funding from the Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure Ireland but had to remember this money generally came from one pot.

Cllr Farren said while he appreciated the response he could not understand why the crossroads at Greencastle to the bottom of Shrove road on the Wild Atlantic Way could not be added to the route.

The motion was agreed upon.