Army denies it is causing potholes in South Sligo with its tanks
Fianna Fáil Councillor Jerry Lundy is claiming army tanks allegedly damaged public roads during a training exercise in the Ox Mountains area recently.
“The army came down to Mount Taaffe and they had all their manoeuvre training exercises,” Cllr Lundy told The Sligo Champion.
“They didn’t consult the local people or the Local Authority and culverts and roads were damaged,” he said.
Cllr Lundy tabled a motion at yesterday’s (Monday’s) meeting of the Municipal District of Ballymote-Tubbercurry asking the Council if compensation can be claimed from the Department of Defence for the damage caused by their tanks on the Sligo roads.
“They went in there with their tanks - these are only small little roads, local people or cycle on them,” said Cllr Lundy.
He said it wasn’t fair of the Department of Defence to “come up and destroy these roads and then just breeze away.”
“The people who live there want their roads to be as good as a condition as the roads in the town. It’s not fair. Culverts were crushed and broken,” he said.
The Department of Defence said:“A training exercise involving approximately 200 members of the Defence Forces deployed with a range of armoured and non-armoured vehicles from the 14 th to 16 th May. At the time of the exercise there was no damage noted or reported to military staff by landowners. Liaison with the landowners took place prior to, during and after the exercise. The Department of Defence has not received to date any complaints regarding this exercise.”