Laois residents 'very angry' with council over refusals to fix road

A road near Mountrath, part of which is used by Laois County Council vehicles, is making local people “very, very angry” because their local council will not fix it.

That was case presented by Cllr James Kelly, Independent, who called on the Council to include road number L-50762-0 Drim Mountrath in the 2023 roads programme at a meeting before Christmas.

Mr. Edmond Kenny, District Engineer, replied that the Council would assess this road in the overall context of the development of a future roads programme.

“An application to resurface the road could be considered under a Community Involvement Scheme,” he said.

The CIS allows communities to have a road, that would not normally be included on the Council’s main roadworks programme, to be repaired at relatively modest cost. Funding from the Department of Transport can be provided to the Council.

But the reply frustrated Cllr Kelly who told the management of the feelings locally.

“People are very very angry over the fact that work has not been done on this road for a long time…They are not going to get involved in a CIS - the road is in a desperate state and council vehicles are using the road,” he said.

Cllr Kelly claimed that the local authority had taken responsibility for surfacing the road previously beyond the water plant where three houses are located. He said council vehicles used the road as far as the water plant.

“Now I am getting an answer that the council will not tarmac it because it is a private road but six months ago the council staff put in gullies that make it ready for tarmacing,” he said.

Cllr Conor Bergin, Fine Gael, backed his colleague. 

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The issue was raised at the December meeting of the Borris-in-Ossory Mountmellick Municipal District in County Hall Portlaoise.