No word on funding for roads repairs in Cooley lead to fears for road works programme

Dundalk-Carlingford's Cllr Antóin Watters has voiced his fears that there might be no road works programme for this year for the standard maintenance of roads in Louth, as any available funding may have to go towards repairing the flood damage to roads in Cooley, due to a lack of requested government funding.

Cllr Watters was speaking to the Dundalk Democrat following the Dundalk Municipal District January meeting, where it was confirmed that Louth County Council has not yet received an update from the Department of the Environment on funding for road repairs in the Cooley Peninsula required following the devastating floods at the end of last October.

Cllr Watters had raised the issue of road repairs at the January meeting, asking that the JCB Pro pothole machine be brought back to Cooley as the roads “are in a desperate state” and that "no matter where you go there are lots of potholes."

Recognising that temporary repairs had been done by the Operations team on some roads following the floods, Cllr Watters said that an update was needed on the request for government funding for further repairs, giving the example of the Deerpark Road where temporary measures have been "all washed out again".

Cllr Watters added that he would be requesting an update from Director of Services, David Jones, on the Council's request for funding, at the upcoming Louth County Council January meeting.

Senior Engineer Paddy Connolly told the meeting in repsonse to Cllr Watters query that the JCB Pro pothole machine would  be in Dundalk for the next couple of weeks and is then heading back to south of the county, adding that it would not be suitable for the work that needed to be done anyway.

Mr Connolly added that they are still awaiting an update from the Department of the Environment on the request for funding and that he understood the Director or Services would be giving an update on it in the next couple of weeks.

Following the meeting Cllr Watters told the Dundalk Democrat that the roads in the area are "an ongoing issue" and that he has been "inundated" with representations in relation to them "be it from potholes to the flood damage".

The Sinn Féin councillor went on to day that "I had a private meeting with David Jones, myself and Ruairí [Ó Murchú TD], highlighting cases with him but we're really no further along the line with funding."

He continued: "My fear now is, we're usually expecting a road works programme for surface dressing, but with no money coming from central government to provide funding for the works on the emergency repairs, we can see a situation where we have no road works programme this year for the standard maintenance of roads, it will all go towards repairing the flood damage, which is no good because at the end of the day we still need the maintenance to be done but we also need the emergency repairs to be done."

Cllr Watters added, "I'll be raising it on Monday [at the County Council meeting] to see what the plan is with David Jones, I know Paddy Connolly said there was an update coming but to me it doesn't look to positive if I'm honest, so I'll be eager to see how it goes on Monday."