€250k for local improvement schemes

COUNCILLORS WELCOME REINSTATEMENT OF FUNDING FOR LOCAL ROADS

DUNDALK councillor John McGahon has confirmed that €250,000 in funding has been secured for Local Improvement Schemes in Louth, The funding will allow for the repair and improvement of small roads and laneways leading to people’s homes and businesses that are not under the normal maintenance of the local authorities.

Cllr. McGahon said: ‘I am delighted to announce that €250,000 funding has been secured for Local Improvement Schemes here in Louth. He said that the government hadn’t been in a position to fund the LIS scheme for the last number of years but he was delighted that the scheme was being reinstated.

‘For people who live in rural areas like North Louth road connectivity is hugely important.

‘ The ability of people to access their own premises, a farmyard or a neighbour’s house is compromised when roads are in a bad state of repair. For emergency services, too, bad road surfaces can lead to delays in accessing sites and can damage their vehicles.’

‘An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar along with Minister for Rural and Community Development Michael Ring have announced the Government is providing a total of €10 million to fund this scheme across the country.’

‘ This will be combined with a small contribution from householders (10-15% of total costs) and Local Authorities, and will allow for the maintenance and improvement of many local roads all over Ireland.

Independent Cllr Maeve Yore also welcomed the funding saying; ‘I am delighted to see this scheme relaunched and hope Louth County Council im- plement and spend the money without delay to improve roads across our county.’

Fianna Fail’s Deputy Declan Breathnach, he commented: ‘While one never looks a gift horse in the mouth I have complained many times of the poor quality of other minor county roads that have received no pot-hole filling nor any form of repair over the last number of years and I have written to Minister Ring requesting that these roads receive their equitable share of funding for road surfacing. The approach of the management at Council level is to say that they only have sufficient fund to deal with busier roads. People on these tertiary roads are paying their motor taxes, tractor taxes, property taxes the same as everyone else and deserve some form of equity. They cannot avail of this scheme and are being left out again.

‘If money cannot be allocated to the Council for these roads then a similar scheme to LIS should be introduced where residents could apply if they are willing to pay 10% of the overall costs similar to LIS.’