Roads of North Meath are paved with good intentions – and €7.7m funding

Report Paul Murphy
Meath County Council intends spending €7.7m on the 1,286km of roads in North Meath this year, a meeting of the local Municipal District was told. While the intended spend got strong support in some quarters on the MD, some councillors expressed concerns at the disintegration of some roads and some said there were roads that “disappeared altogether”.

In addition to the €7.7m the county council will put in €1.5m pf its own resources into local roads. Director of Service Martin Murray said the €7.7m allocation had been decided on by the Department of Transport but the figures are based on last year’s figure. If there is more money coming by way of grants he will be coming back to the councillors to ascertain how that money can be spent. Among the projects to get funding will be the Boyne valley to Lakelands Greenway, restoration work on Kildalkey road Athboy, Carlanstown will get a new pedestrian crossing. “An extremely ambitious and extremely well spread out programme”, is how Mr Murray described the plan.

While he praised the work done on the roads by the council Sinn Fein Cllr Michael Gallagher, pictured above,  said the roads in North Meath were in terrible condition. “Drumconrath-Slane road is like something from a war torn country. The amount of cars damaged in North Meath in the last month has been phenomenal”, he said.

Cllr Eugene Cassidy welcomed the funding but also described the state of the roads in north Meath that ”got a hammering” in recent weeks.

Cllr Eugene Cassidy said the roads had “got a hammering” this year but welcomed the number of roads included in the council programme. He pointed out that Gibbstown was the only area with a regional roads running through it yet had no footpath.

Cllrs agreed that heavy rain was a factor in damaging roads. Cllr Sarah Reilly said the roads were being “eaten up” and it was very difficult for the staff to get on top of that.

Independent Cllr David Gilroy said the roads programme would deliver important infrastructure, safety and accessibility improvements across the Athboy area. A key outcome for him was the delivery of an off-street fully accessible Bus Eireann bus stop in the car park beside St James Church.