Locals had to salt road for ambulance in Carrigallen

Earlier this month during spell of frost locals in Carrigallen had to get out and salt a  road to help an ambulance reach a 96-year-old who needed emergency help.

Cllr Paddy O’Rourke said he was part of a community effort to salt a local road to a 96-year-old man’s house during the last freeze. He explained the   elderly man fell and couldn’t get to his phone or panic button and then needed hospital attention. The ambulance was unable to safely reach the man's home due to frost so neighbours got out and put salt and grit on the road.

The issue arose during Cllr Ita Reynolds Flynn’s motion on gritting at Monday’s Ballinamore Municipal meeting. A number of roads and areas were discussed such as Drumgownagh Cross down to Cloone, Aughoo Bridge towards Ballinamore and Drumeela and Newtowngore areas. Cllr Flynn said these areas were “extremely dangerous” during the last frost and constituents were concerned about the next freeze.

Cllr Caillian Ellis supported the motion and said some roads were “lethal” and he couldn't travel in the bus.  He said Home Helps and carers could not get to patients and he called for salt to be deposited at junctions so local people could use it. He said the gritting strategy needs to be looked at and organised by September each year. Cllr Paddy O'Rourke informed the meeting that he  helped to salt the village of Cloone, otherwise people would have been left stranded.

Cllr Brendan Barry asked for more detailed meetings, maps and organised salt drops to be arranged in September or October. He noted that councillors get a lot of calls about gritted roads and need to have all the information available. Cllr Gerry Dolan said areas of Aghacahel were very bad and locals have said they would help salt hills if the salt was deposited by the council.

Council engineer Darragh O'Boyle informed the meeting that the main gritting routes will not be changed.  He said communities can purchase salt bins and the council do try to get to popular junctions on local roads during working hours. He noted that this issue is a discussion every year and the council cannot grit every road. The Winter Maintenance Plan was  increased by over 30% in the past two years.

Cllr Ellis asked for some link roads such as Fenagh to Mohill, Kesh to Mohill etc  be gritted during the day to help get people to the main roads which are part of the winter maintenance plans.

The local authority said  they do make grit available at 45 locations throughout the county during extreme weather conditions.