North Longford councillor asks where €100,000 funding allocation for road project has gone

A North Longford councillor last week requested an update from Longford County Council on the report into the ring road/bypass of Granard town and the previous allocation of €100,000 towards the project sought by former councillor PJ Reilly.

Fine Gael Cllr Garry Murtagh submitted the motion at last week's January meeting of Granard Municipal District.

"We all know PJ Reilly personally and we worked closely with him over the last few years.

"It was something he was very passionate about and very determined on and it's something he always kept on the agenda as much as possible.

"That hard work paid off, he did receive an allocation through the then-Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan of €100,000 and I'm just looking for an update on that and to see where it is."

The motion was seconded by Cllr Turlough McGovern who said he was interested to know what the situation is.

"As you rightly said PJ was a councillor here for 15 years and he was passionate about this so we are looking forward to an update on that."

Cllr Colin Dalton also supported the motion and he stated PJ was very passionate about the project.

Cllr Pádraig McNamara said the issue had been mentioned on several occasions during his time as a local representative.

"I'm quite sure it has come up lots of times over the years and I'd say the link road has been mentioned 20 or 30 years ago and we are still waiting for progress on it.

"It's €100,000 and you wouldn't see it when you are doing stuff like that, it is eaten up quite quickly but it would be interesting to see if it is progressed over the next 10 to 15 years considering we are still waiting on the N4 to be extended from Mullingar to Roosky.”

Cllr Murtagh said other projects may be a higher priority than 'our N55, but it would be a huge asset' for it to be completed.

He stated it would be very pro-business for the second largest town in county Longford, it would help greatly with parking.

"I think there are 80 houses for development over the next three or four years and maybe this would bring further development into the area, which would be a huge benefit."

District Engineer David Coppinger said the N55 Granard bypass scheme is currently in the preliminary design stage and the consultants tenders were opened on December 12 last and the process of assessing them is ongoing.

"At present they are in the process of appointing consultants to progress the design of the scheme.

"Once appointed the consultant team will progress the scheme through option selection, which is phase two and subsequently through the design and environmental evaluation, which is phase three and the statutory planning process, which is phase four."

The local authority district engineer addressed councillors in Granard during the monthly area meeting last week and said they 'can't finalise anything' as they have no idea of their budget and he expects another 'challenging year'.

Mr Coppinger stated that they have started some advance work on some drainage projects since Christmas and carried out other 'mundane' and low-cost work but planning ahead is very difficult.

"The technical staff are involved in procurement at the moment, health and safety and traffic management.

"We don't know yet what our budget is or what we'll get this year so we can't finalise anything, but I have a note that I anticipate 2026 will be another challenging year."

Mr Coppinger said last year they just about managed to stay within budget because they had purchased materials in previous years and got 'good value'.

The district engineer also provided an update on the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) and he said there are 49 open files and last year they managed to complete 30 roads..

The LIS allows local councils to improve private and less-used roads, helping deliver the Government’s Our Rural Future Rural Development Policy 2021-2025.

Mr Coppinger said they have not received any notification of the budget from the department.

"We have no idea how many we will get through this year, but I would make one comment that I make every year around this time and that is it's no good getting the budget in July or August.

"We need the budget in March because again last year we got additional money in July, but we barely managed to spend it.
"At one stage we thought we would have to send back money because it came too late."

Mr Coppinger said the new link road, also affectionately known as the Ulster Bank Road, has been open for traffic since late autumn.
"There are no complaints, I'll put it that way and there will be an official opening at a later stage."

Cllr Padraig McNamara, Cllr Colin Dalton and Cllr Garry Murtagh individually thanked Mr Coppinger for the report and the ongoing 'fantastic' and 'positive' work that was being carried out as part of the roads programme.

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