Published: Wednesday, 3rd March, 2010 4:51pm

Lobinstown company builds its own road

Conor McManus, Prioty Construction, and Robert Devlin of Meade Potato Company at the site of the new road.
Pic by==: 97

A Meath company which employs 88 full-time staff, rising to over 100 in the busy harvesting season and a further 150 indirectly, is building its own new road leading to its plant at Lobinstown.

The road has been deteriorating for some years and Meath County Council had been unable to fund its repair.

The Meade Potato Company has clarified comments made at a recent meeting of the Slane Electoral Area Council of Meath County Council and reported in last week's issue which could be interpreted as indicating that the council was building the road when, in fact, it is the company which is doing so.

The company is building, constructing and funding the new 1.2km private road leading to the premises to alleviate the traffic off the old road, the L-56011, which has deteriorated "drastically" over recent years.

The company has awarded the road-building contract to Priority Construction, a Galway-based company which, in turn, is using several local haulage and civil engineering firms to give a major boost to employment in the local area.

"The Meade Potato Company, Meath County Council and the local residents are delighted to see the project started as it took a long six years of land acquisition, planning and appeals to An Bord Pleanala to bring it to this stage. It is expected that the road will be completed in about four months' time, depending on weather conditions," according to Robert Devlin, general manager.

The Meade Potato Company was founded back in 1977 by Philip J Meade as a sole trader and has been growing ever since. It is now a family-run business and has grown and established itself as one of Ireland's leading potato and vegetable growers, packers and distributors, currently employing 88 full-time staff and over 100 during the busy harvesting season, with a further 150 indirectly in the transport, building maintenance and the growing of potatoes and vegetables throughout Ireland.

Cllr Ann Dillon Gallagher, a member of the Slane Electoral Area, said that great credit was due to the company for building its own road. She said that local people were delighted that the road was being built and she said she looked forward to its completion in about 16 weeks' time.

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