Snow trouble in the uplands as councillor looks for a quad fix

A member of Enniscorthy Municipal District Council asked at this month’s meeting if something could be done to ensure that people living in upland areas of the district can be reached quicker in times of inclement weather such as snow.

Cllr Kathleen Codd-Nolan made references to areas like Kiltealy and Ballindaggin where she said some people experienced difficulties during recent snow showers.

‘ The village asked for grit and it didn’t arrive until the afternoon by which time the snow had disappeared,’ she said.

‘I just want to see if we can make it a bit easier for them,’ she added.

She was referring to a recent spell of bad weather that saw snow fall in the areas she mentioned while other areas of the county were unaffected.

In response to her question Executive Engineer with the County Council, Joanne Kehoe, said: ‘We felt, because the forecast wasn’t bad for the rest of the day, that it would not have required mobilising additional equipment.’

‘We would have been out spreading salt on the day of the snow,’ said Ms Kehoe.

‘Maybe we could go to the area earlier,’ said Cllr Codd-Nolan.

‘People couldn’t get out of their cars [for a while],’ she added.

Cllr Keith Doyle then suggested the local authority look at its capital programme to see if quad bikes could be looked at as an option.

‘ They might get around to a lot of areas where they’re snow,’ he said.