Additional road funding to be sought

ADDITIONAL funding will be sought for the roads programme in the county in 2020.

At their March meeting, several councillors raised concerns about the county’s roads.

Cllr Vincent Blake (FG) said he welcomed the increase in budget for road repairs, however, he was concerned that more could be done.

He stated he had been contacted by a person who had lost a day’s work due to damaged tyres.

Cllr Patsy Glennon (FF) said the new N81 is a ‘number one priority as far as

I’m concerned’.

While the N81 gets ‘great traction’ in the council chamber however, it ‘appears to be totally forgotten about people in west Wicklow find that difficult to understand’, he stated, adding that it was a national secondary route that goes to Dublin and hasn’t been upgraded.

Cllr Miriam Murphy (Ind) said that some rural roads were in ‘dire straits’. People are paying their taxes, however ‘the roads are just not standard enough, ‘It’s just not safe and we as a county council need to look at that. I think we need to realise it’s not just the main road people are using. They are using every road in the country... and these are the people that are coming to us and we need to up our game on this,’ Cllr Murphy concluded.

Chief Executive of Wicklow County Council Frank Curran said the roads allocation would be discussed by the municipal districts with the council’s annual service plan to be discussed at the next meeting.

He added that while the council’s funding allocation had increased, they would continue to look for additional funding from the Department of Transport.