"Verge drops" need to be filled in - Warnock

Cathaoirleach Cllr Justin Warnock asked that the Leitrim County Council Roads Department when undertaking the roads programme in 2024, ensure that an allowance for stone is made to fill in verges where necessary to avoid motorists getting stuck and to retrospectively fill in verges where issues have arisen.

Cllr Warnock stated: "When road works are done, you are left with a channel along the side of the tarmacadam and people go and get stuck; it's causing a lot of grief to a lot of people." 
A report by the Roads office noted that verge filling will be implemented where possible while implementing the roads programme and carrying out routine maintenance works.

Cllr Mary Bohan supported the motion saying if "you're in a big lorry or a tractor and trailer, there is nowhere to pull in" and said there are areas where the "drops are quite substantial" adding it is "very serious and could cause an accident". 

She suggested introducing a policy that would ensure that where road works are carried out, "that we could look at them again and look at these big drops."

Cllr Sean McDermott said it "is a huge problem on these roads" adding it's "safety issue" with Cllr Padraig Fallon stating "every one of us has had complaints about it over the years". 

Cllr Felim Gurn said that last year a car, trying to avoid an object on the road, got stuck in a "dip of about two or three feet and they were lucky they were able to get out of the car."

He said that when the roads are being tarmacked, "it's something that should be looked at." 

Eric Gilroy, engineer at Leitrim County Council, said that many of the roads are narrow and a lot of funding is required to fix the situation. 
"The width isn't there on an awful lot of roads to get that standard; you need land and significant funding. In normal maintenance, we do work where we can where the width allows," he said.