Details of the national road grant allocations for 2014 and the regional and local road grant allocations were given to members of Cork County Council on Monday.

The county council got €3.2M more from central government than last year in the national road grant allocations but then again, the 2013 allocation was the lowest in many years.

No projects are earmarked for the Fermoy Electoral Area in the major schemes category. There was funding to allow construction under the pavement and minor works scheme on the N72 at Castletownroche. 

The regional and local roads allocations were cut by 6.91%, from €39.7M last year to €36.9 this year. The discretionary maintenance grant allocation is up €2M to €9.1M but the winter maintenance grant has been incorporated into it, reducing the net effect.

The cost of salt used on those roads last winter must also comes from the allocation. The grant is the main source of funding for ongoing maintenance such as pothole repairs and drainage. Local authorities are being given the discretion to use up to 15% of the grant on local improvement schemes but Director of Services Tom Stritch, says that, given the huge needs of the public road network, it’d be extremely difficult to justify spending any of the grant on what are essentially private roads. Area committees will make the decisions once the area engineers have analysed their overall allocations.

The restoration improvement grant, at €18.3M was down slightly on last year. 25% of that can be transferred to their discretionary grant scheme. It was seen as important last year in allowing the maintenance programme to continue and in meeting the council’s labour costs.

The restoration maintenance grant was cut again and, at €5M now, is at less than half what it was in 2009. The cut in this grant is likely to cause the county council the most hardship as it means road surface dressing can be carried out less often. The Director of Services warned that, given the level of rainfall that is being experienced in recent years (never mind in recent weeks), the reduction in such work will inevitably lead to more potholes and road surface problems generally. The council hopes to use some of the discretionary funding to carry out preparatory work for surface dressing, to help stretch its reduced grant.

Specific improvement grants are down too but the low cost safety allocation is up by 12%. It’ll allow progress on 14 different schemes across the county.

Funding for the community involvement scheme has been cut altogether. Cork County Council was lucky last year in that it got funding for all 28 schemes it applied for. It was a pilot scheme which is being reviewed following which a decision will be made on whether or not to reinstate it.

The block grants for all nine town councils in the county have been kept at the same level of last year. Fermoy’s allocation is €161,300.

Members were told that the county council’s submission for grant aid consideration for flood damage following the recent storms is being considered by the Department of the Environment at present, and that it would be appropriate to await a decision before deciding to use any of their own grant funding to repair damage to roads.

Cllr Noel McCarthy welcomed the grants that were increased but said he was disappointed that one of the most important ones, the restoration maintenance grant, was reduced and another worthy scheme, the community involvement scheme, was cut altogether.

Cllr Frank O’Flynn said they’d been making inroads into roads maintenance but the cut in some of the allocations would set them back considerably. He was critical of the community involvement scheme being cut altogether and the fact that no allocation was made for new schemes for bridges. Ballaghaderrig bridge in Mitchelstown for example was ready to go, he pointed out, but now there is no funding for work. He welcomed news that funding would allow the stretch of the N72 from the church to the bridge in Castletownroche to be done and that Farahy bridge has also been allocated funds for repairs. Work on a narrow section of the Fermoy to Ballyhooly road at Templenoe has also been earmarked for funding for work to be done, which he welcomed.