West Cork roads have ‘craters, not potholes’, says county councillor

Bad weather has left many roads in West Cork in such a bad state that emergency funding is needed to address the issue, according to a local councillor.

Independent Ireland’s Danny Collins raised the issue at a recent meeting of Cork County Council’s Western Division held in Clonakilty. He said that after recent wet and cold weather, West Cork roads were “suffering big time”.

Mr Collins said that in many cases “they’re not potholes, they’re craters”.

He said bad road conditions were visible across the division, as well as all along the N71 national road. 

“We are appealing for funding — something has to be done.”

Mr Collins added that there would probably be an increased number of claims against the council from motorists suffering damaged tyres caused by roads in disrepair, and the council was effectively “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

Fianna Fáil’s Joe Carroll said extra funding was made available previously to deal with storm damage and a similar approach was needed now. “It can’t go on as it is. It’s all over the place,” he said.

Independent Ireland’s Daniel Sexton said funding was recently announced for more greenways, which he supported, but funding should be made available to fix the area’s roads first.

Diabolical

He said the condition of many roads was “diabolical” and added that national roads in West Cork were particularly bad. Mr Sexton said national roads in other parts of the country were in noticeably better condition than the N71.

He said potholes and rutting on the road outside Deasy’s car park in Clonakilty were almost a foot deep in places, adding: “It’s not a national road.”

Fine Gael’s John Michael Foley said extra investment was needed in road drainage. He said if more funding was made available, he would be in favour of introducing more council road drainage crews.

“The water needs to be taken off the roads as soon as possible,” he added.” He said fresh tarmac was of little use if water was staying on road surfaces, freezing, and causing more damage.

Divisional manager Michael Lynch said increasing levels of heavy rain were affecting roads in the division.

He said significant funds were spent addressing the problem every year, adding that he would discuss the issue with the director of roads to raise councillors’ concerns, and wherever funding opportunities were available, the council would apply for them.

• Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.