Who's asphalt here?

A BADLY pot-holed busy North Meath road missed out on €200,000 worth of repairs, because of a clerical error with maps, which saw an adjacent minor road resurfaced instead.

The Ughtyneill to Moynalty Road -R164, which had been earmarked by councillors for resurfacing, is in very bad condition and has been described as "one of the worst regional roads in the county."

Angry Kells area councillors raised the issue at a meeting of Kells Municipal Council last week, pointing out that the decision regarding which roads to repair in the roads programme was a reserve function, - to be taken by elected representatives alone.

They were told it had been an clerical error involving maps which had resulted in an adjacent road being done instead.

The council would try to get the work done this year, but if not, it would be first on the list for next year.

The issue was raised by Cllr Paul McCabe, who pointed out that councillors had voted to allocate €200,000 for repairs to that road.

"It is in a shocking condition. It is so bad that people living along it, can hardly get in and out of their houses. It is one of the worst regional roads in the county and it carries a lot of traffic and HGVs between Kingscourt and Moynalty."

Cllr McCabe said it called the entire system into question.

"We agreed a schedule of work and there was unanimous support for that particular scheme. It is not good enough that it has not been done and there has been no consultation with councillors."

Cllr Eugene Cassidy said it was important that road was done. "If there is anything left over from the roads programme, it is important that this will be the first to be done.

Cllr Sean Drew said that it was important that maps can be clearly interpreted going forward, so that there can be no doubt and this cannot happen again.

"This is very unfair on elected representatives. We have been knocking on doors to people are saying that we told them the work would be done. They don't know why it hasn't been done.

"Can we go back to the transport section and see if there is any way it can be done this year," he asked.

Cllr David Gilroy said it would be fair enough if such a mistake had been made on a small scheme, but a mistake of that magnitude should have been brought to the councillors attention, rather than having to be raised by a councillor under any other business.