Rising cost of materials hitting Mayo road maintenance plans hard

COUNCILLORS have expressed their disappointment at the money allocated by the TII and Department of Transport for roads in Mayo.

A sum €37,244,840 has been allocated for the maintenance and renewal of the road network in Mayo for 2023, with €19.5 million allocated for improvement works and €2.8 million for maintenance works.

Paul Dolan, head of roads, Mayo County Council, said that maintenance works grants remain the same as last year while the national primary grant lower as expected due to near completion of N5

Councillor Neil Cruise said that due to material inflation and cost of getting work done, grants are way, way down, both for the main roads and region and local roads and asked were there projects in early stages for national primary and secondary roads.

The councillor also added there were plenty of greenway projects but got small allocations.

“From Project 2040, the budgets for roads were supposed to go to two thirds roads and one third for active travel and greenways. It’s not reflected in these numbers and that’s very, very, worrying.

“We have plenty of greenway projects but nowhere near enough allocated. If it’s a two-thirds, one-third split we should be getting a huge amount of money for greenways and active travel and that’s not reflected in the money allocated.

“It feels like the Minister for Environment has given a three-card trick as we are not getting the grant allocations relative to the numbers he has spoken about,” said the councillor.