Hope has been expressed that Clare County Council will be able to maintain its spending levels on roads next year.
It comes as a new report has highlighted that more than a quarter of Clare’s regional roads have ‘moderate to significant defects’ .
Concern is being raised that the quality of Clare’s roads may be impacted by financial fallout of from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new report from the National Oversight and Audit Commission, highlighting the standard of roads here last year, describes more than a quarter of this county’s regional roads as having ‘moderate to significant defects’.
Around 5% of these are labelled ‘significant structural defects’, though around 40% of roads in Clare are considered to have either no defects or only minor ones.
The figures are marginally better than the year before, but there are now concerns that the costs of the COVID pandemic could impact the Council’s ability to make further gains into the future.
NOAC Chair Michael McCarthy says the councils finances could directly affect the quality of roads.
Clare County Council says the data in the report should be considered within its overall context, noting that 70% of Clare’s regional road networks are considered to be in good condition.
Fine Gael Councillor Pat Burke says the majority of complaints he received are about flooding and overhanging trees.
The Whitegate representative says a lot of work has been done to improve the condition of roads in the county in 2020, despite a difficult year.
Next year’s road works programme will be discussed by councillors early in the new year and it’s hopes that spending can be maintained, despite the roads budget taking a hit in the last recession.
Clonlara Independent Councillor Michael Begley says money isn’t always the issue, when it comes to maintaining roads over a period of time.
