Since the major roadworks on the N72 began, by-roads around Ballyhooly, Castletownroche and Killavullen have been suffering due to the volume of traffic they have had to deal with – councillors now claim that these back roads and diversion routes are now in a worse state than the roads that were repaired in the first place.

The issue was raised at a recent area meeting in Mallow and Cllr John Paul O’Shea said that the NRA needs to make funds available for these roads, however the engineers were not optimistic.

Cllr Ronan Sheehan added that everything should be done to try to secure funding, as the roads are in a very bad state.

Cllr Frank O’Flynn argued that in future, there should be a stipulation in the contract that any roads that will be taking on the burden of additional traffic should be included for repairs afterwards.

“Those roads are in a far worse condition than the roads we repaired, now they will suffer and for how long more?” he said.

He highlighted the road between Ballyhooly, Grange and Moorepark saying that it should be upgraded to take the additional traffic.

Cllr Noel McCarthy added that the roads should be put back in the condition that they were in before the closures.

However, councillors were told that the funds are limited and that the NRA have said that they are not in a position to provide any funding for local roads.