Delvin street ‘falling apart’ as resurfacing grant awaited

A decision is awaited from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) on funding for the resurfacing of the street in Delvin.

That was the response provided by the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad to Cllr Niall Gaffney when he raised the issue with officials at the March meeting, asking for an update on the work.

Cllr Gaffney remarked that the area has been awaiting the TII decision on funding since his first meeting as a councillor.

“I know there was some light resurfacing done just before the summer, but we’ve been a long time waiting for it to be patched up properly. It’s falling apart,” he said.

Cllr David Jones agreed, saying that business owners in Delvin and also Clonmellon were complaining about the issue.

“The TII are really slow to announce this funding and it needs to be done badly,” he said, adding that he had never seen the street in such poor condition.

In addition, he continued, there was a need to begin looking at the road outside the town as well: although it is a national road, it is of a poor standard he said.

“If it was that bit closer to Dublin, it wouldn’t be in such poor condition.

“That’s where our hands are tied within the local authority: we’re relying on TII too much because we’ve so many national roads running through the county and the funding has just not been given to local authorities that needs to be given.”

Continuing, he pointed his finger for some of this failure at the Green Party: “The reality is when we had the Greens in government, they didn’t fund these roads,” he said, stating that it appeared that a huge proportion of the roads budget had gone on signs.

Also fully behind Cllr Gaffney’s motion was Cllr Alfie Devine: “I think we need to put more pressure on TII for these towns that are on the national road networks,” he said.

Responding, director of services Deirdre Reilly said it was not the case that the district staff have not been asking TII to sanction the funds. “We’re putting pressure on TII but we’re like every other county: we’re waiting for the announcements.”

Rosmead

Cllr Gaffney also asked that the district carry out works at the junction at L1532 at Rosmead, to improve sightlines, access and safety.

While the official written response stated that the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad will examine that junction and if works are required, consult with the Transportation Section and TII to source funding, district engineer Pat Kavanagh informed Cllr Gaffney that he is in the process of having that surveyed at the moment.

“The council own some of the land across the road so that could be a benefit and hopefully we’ll be able to improve the sightline there at a relatively low cost,” he said.