Council blames NRA for Moate repairs delay

The roads around Moate are still in a 'deplorable condition' despite promises that repair work would begin as soon as the N6 bypass was opened. Drivers have to navigate large potholes throughout Main Street, uneven manhole covers and uneven road surfaces outside the church, the Rose Club and on either side of Moate itself. 'Michael Connelly, the council engineer dealing with the N6 project, made a submission with costings to the National Roads Authority (NRA)and is still awaiting a response. The submission includes the by-roads as well as Main Street in Moate,' said local councillor Joe Whelan, Cathaoirleach of Westmeath County Council. 'I"m a bit perturbed that the goalposts are being changed, we were told first that the NRA had the funding available and we understood that works would begin as soon as the bypass opened, now we"re being told that the council has to submit a request and we"re still waiting,' he said. In May, Westmeath County Council made their first submission for repairs costing €200,000 to the National Roads Authority. At the June Athlone Area meeting of Westmeath County Council, in response to a question from Cllr Tom Allen, the council said that 'urgent repairs' would be made to Main Street 'as soon as possible' after the N6 bypass opened on July 16. But the council is still awaiting a response from the NRA. 'No decision has been made yet... The ancillary work is still ongoing, the NRA are still liaising with the local authorities to see what"s needed in terms of funding,' said Caroline O"Brien, press officer with the NRA. She said that once Westmeath County Council received the funding, the timescale of works would be down to the council. 'Generally the locals are talking about the potholes, the humps and the hallows on the road. I can"t see it being left as it is, but certainly a bit of pressure is needed on those responsible. The bypass is only two months old, but if you don"t put pressure on people nothing will be done about it,' said Terry Coughlan, owner of Coughlan"s pub on Main Street. 'Moate Partnership had a meeting with the council a couple of months back about the state of the roads, if it"s up to the NRA then the councillors need to be pushing more for the funding.' 'For three to four years, Moate has been getting the bad end of the stick,' he added, citing the delay in the road repairs, the lack of a street sweeper and street bins only being emptied twice a week as signs that the council is 'ignoring Moate'. The council has said that 'deployment of staff is dependent on the works programme at any given time'. However, once the road works eventually begin, Main Street will only be temporarily repaired, the full re-surfacing won"t take place until 2011, when the new water treatment and sewerage scheme is installed. Road to nowhere? It"s not just Moate awaiting road repairs since the N6 bypass opened in July. 'Major repairs are needed on the R444 through Castledaly, it got a particularly bad battering from trucks and is in a particularly bad state now, one section has been repaired now but it still needs work. The N62 took some brunt of it as well as did the Cave Road (close to Castledaly),' according to Fine Gael Councillor John Dolan. 'We were all assured that any damage would be repaired but it seems that the NRA are dragging their heels. There"s no point in building the bypass if we can"t use the other roads,' Cllr Dolan added. 'The NRA should factor in the cost of road repairs as part of the overall cost of the project. They should be liable.'