State of Wexford’s rural roads is becoming pandemic of its own

THE €18.5m provided to Wexford County Council to repair roads in the county this year will not be enough to address areas which have gone neglected for years.

That was the view of dispirited councillors at the monthly meeting of the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD) last week.

Referencing the funding, which comes from central government, Independent councillor Ger Carthy said, ‘This falls short of what’s required. This government allocation has been reduced since 2008 and caused us untold hardship.

‘In addition, a number of parishes in the Rosslare District that were in the former New Ross area have been neglected for a large number of years.’

Praising District Engineer Mark Collins for his work in maintaining road networks, Cllr Carthy said it was up to the county’s Oireachteas members to secure ‘supplementary funding to help with the roads in the district’.

Aontú councillor and Taghmon native, Jim Codd, said people were being penalised for living in the countryside.

‘People are entitled to live in the countryside, but at the moment they’re paying a fortune to maintain cars. The mechanics are doing well, the people who sell tyres are doing well.

‘With the rural roads, we’re putting out fires by tarring the potholes, that’s washed out of them after the next shower of rain. Unless we come up with an alternative way of doing this, unless the funding is found, you won’t be able to travel these roads.’

Councillor Lisa McDonald cited the example of the Hodgesmill Road in Piercestown, a stretch which had been repaired last year only to deteriorate in the following months.

Accepting that some repairs had failed, Mr Collins said that by and large the work carried out in the district had been successful.

‘We had some failures in Taghmon as well, but they’re the exception. We laid 12km of repairs last year, a couple of hundred metres failed, so it’s a small percentage.

‘You’re trying to cover as much as you can on a small budget, and you’ve got around 620km to do. Nearly 40 per cent of that is in the red with regards structural issues. The average return on a road is about 30 years at the moment. You’re never going to catch up. The roads are in pretty bad condition, it is a pandemic in itself.’

Currently, with Level 5 restrictions still in place, small repair crews are being tasked with addressing issues in the district, using, on average 600 litres of tar and 1.5 tonnes of chips in each lorry. However, according to some of Cllr Codd’s constituents, not all crews are as effective as others.

‘Can I point out, and I’m sorry to say it, there are roads where the crews have filled some of the potholes and others have been left behind,’ he said. ‘I’ve been contacted by people who are complaining about this. Some crews do better jobs than others. We need to have a standard across the county.’

Cllr Carthy took umbrage with the insinuation not all crews were doing their jobs.

‘They’re working in Level 5 lockdown, not a word out of them, in good and bad weather, they’re very productive,’ he said. ‘It’s disappointing to hear Cllr Codd isn’t happy with the quality of their work. He should withdraw that.’

Fine Gael’s Jim Moore was also unhappy with the comment.

‘During the pandemic the statement has put out that we’re all in this together, that sort of remark has no place in the work we’re doing at the moment.

‘Cllr Codd would be best advised to take note of what we’re all at and not to be so critical in challenging times,’ he said.

Yet the Aontú councillor was not for turning. ‘I can’t recall how many times Cllrs Moore and Carthy have asked me to withdraw remarks at this stage, but the remarks I’ve made are the remarks the people have given to me. I won’t be withdrawing those comments,’ he said.

‘Yes, we are in all this together Cllr Moore, but many of the areas neglected were not in the New Ross area they were in the Wexford area so I’ve no interest in passing it off or saying somebody else is responsible.

‘I’m sorry you’re so sensitive about the work being done but I’ll continue to represent the people of the area.’

The last word on the issue went to Head of Finance, Annette O’Neill, who said Mr Collins was operating above the national average despite being hamstrung by lack of funding. ’The funding for roads across the country has been drawn down, my understanding is that the average is once every 38 years nationwide so if Mark is getting them done once every 30 years he’s doing above average.

‘The problems here aren’t WCC problems, the problems are national funding for local government. Every year we are going to see more deterioration on our roads, patching the roads is not the same thing.’