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Funding for works on a cul-de-sac at Carhoo, Kildorrery are being sought, with the question ‘Is it a public or private road?’ central to the issue.

The issue of funding for works on a cul-de-sac road at Carhoo in Kildorrery was the subject of considerable wrangling at the recent meeting of the Fermoy Electoral Area Committee of Cork County Council.

Councillor Kevin O'Keeffe was pressing the case for road repairs there to be done under the council's Local Improvement Scheme which is for public roads, rather than their Community Involvement Scheme for private roads.

Senior area engineer, Brendan O'Gorman warned members that 10 weeks of continuous bad weather over the winter meant they are going to be under severe pressure come the end of the year for funding for road repairs. "If you take money away from public roads and give it to private ones, our public ones will deterioriate further," he pointed out.

Councillor Kevin O'Keeffe was adamant though that the Carhoo road should be included. "They're taxpayers too" he said. Residents are willing to make the 25% contribution towards the scheme to get it done, he pointed out, saying the contribution towards the Community Involvement Scheme was 5% less.

"Residents have been knocking on my door for 12 months or more asking for this to be done. Please consider this for this year," he pleaded.

The engineer however continued to urge caution, saying three more such roads were in the same boat.

PUBLIC OR PRIVATE?

Cllr. Frank O'Flynn said the council had carried out works on the Carhoo cul-de-sac previously. The engineer disputed that but Cllr. O'Flynn was insistent, saying he'd been told so by residents. If that was the case, Cllr. O'Keeffe said, they could argue that it is a public road. The engineer said if it could be shown works were done there it could be considered a public road and thus considered for funding as such, but it won't be this year.

Cllr. O'Keeffe continued to protest, saying it wouldn't be done for four more years if that was the case. That wasn't necessarily so, the engineer told him. The list changed from time to time, with communities dropping out sometimes if they don't pay up their portion of the funding, freeing up funding for others.

Cllr. Noel McCarthy wasn't supporting his colleague. "You are asking us to agree to fund work on a private road when public roads are so in need of funding," he told him. It was finally agreed to defer the matter to the next meeting, to check whether or not the council had in fact carried out works previously on the road.

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