Roads funding slashed by almost €5 million

Plans for badly-needed road improvements in the county have been dealt a severe blow after the Department of Transport slashed almost €5m from Meath County Council"s 2009 Roads Programme allocation. The move comes at a time when many of Meath"s roads are in a deplorable condition and the latest funding cuts are likely to have serious implications for the upkeep of several secondary and minor roads in the county. Cutbacks in the budget have seen Meath County Council"s allocation for regional and county roads reduced from just over €21.3m to just under €16.6m, a cut of some 22.5 per cent, prompting an angry reaction from local councillors. The appalling state of many of Meath"s potholed roads and the funding cut has led the council to seek permission from the department to set aside its multi-annual roads programme and instead use the funding on pothole and sectional repair and road maintenance. It is understood that the department has given approval to the council to use its discretion in how the funding is spent, and much of the allocation will now be used for pothole and sectional repair on the county"s worst roads. It had been expected that local authorities" roads funding would be reduced in the emergency budget, and on the advice of Meath County Council"s director of infrastructure, Eugene Cummins, councillors deferred passing their 2009 Roads Programme until a special meeting on 28th April. While councillors had approved programmes of work at area level, these will now have to revised given the new budget cuts. The roads programme is usually adopted in March but uncertainty over funding means the programme has still not been adopted and will not be until the meeting on 28th April, provided agreement is reached. Correspondence has been received by the council and details on funding cuts have been circulated to councillors. The discretionary improvement grant has been halved from €822,000 to €411,000, the restoration improvement grants have been cut from €8,768,00 to €5,793,000, while the low-cost safety budget has been reduced by €46,000 to just €203,000. The specific improvement grant has been more than halved from €2.5m to €1.2m and the regional signposting allocation has been slashed from €300,000 to €186,000. Cllr William Carey has expressed outrage at the cut and said that all the area councillors met in March and prepared a work programe on an already reduced budget, taking care to only carry out necessary work in view of the stringent resources allocated. 'At our April meeting, we were advised that there could be further cuts on the way and a plan B was talked about. However, we are now informed the a sum of nearly €5m has been cut from our origional allocation. This now means that some of our most urgent restoration work will be cut, but worst of all is a cut in our road safety measures. This in nothing short of criminal because it is now putting lives in danger,' he said. Cllr Patsy O"Neill has also hit out at the Government"s plans to increase the penalty points for not having a current NCT certificate, given the state of the county"s road and the damage that is being done to vehicles. He said: 'On some roads, it is virtually impossible to stay on your own side of the road and avoid the craters that have developed as a result of not attending to smaller potholes. In other areas, the sides of the roads have subsided and cars have been damaged when they have pulled in to allow oncoming cars pass by.' He said that roads are not being properly maintained due to a lack of funds and that the Government has made the situation worse by 'reducing the meagre amount that they had been giving to the local authority'. Cllr Michael Gallagher is also calling for the penalty points increase to be deferred until Meath roads are repaired. He said: 'Meath has probably the worst roads in the country. Rural secondary and regional roads are in a dire state. It is disgraceful that the Government have now introduced five penalty points for failure to have an NCT certificate, while at the same time they slash the road maintenance budget by €150 million. It is hypocritical of Fianna Fail councillors to be photographed with their heads in a pothole, giving out about the poor condition of the roads when their party is largely to blame.' Cllr John Farrelly has also called for the Government"s new penalty points system not to be introduced on vehicles because of the general state of roads. 'Motorists in some rural parts of Meath cannot maintain cars or vans in roadworthy condition due to the poor surface of some roads,' he said. Cllr Jim Holloway said that back in 1996, Taoiseach John Bruton had set out a policy to restore the county roads as a 'national asset' and that the programme was well underway when Fianna Fail won the general election in June 1997. He said the county roads in Meath are worse than they were 12 years and added that this was 'extraordinary given the millions that have been spent'.