“That I am calling on Roscommon County Council to salt roads during severe weather that are omitted from the winter gritting program, which connects Villages and Towns. I am calling on Roscommon County Council to initiate a secondary gritting program during severe weather using the existing gritting fleet (at times the lorries are lying idle) and utilise relief drivers to carry out this work. I am also requesting a detailed breakdown of the cost per km to grit existing roads”

The motion was proposed by Cllr. Fitzmaurice and seconded by Cllr. McDermott.

The Meetings Administrator read the following reply:

Salting Lorries are mobilised across the county in line with the Winter Service Plan for Roscommon. This Winter Service Plan is Roscommon County Council’s commitment to maintain a certain level of service on specified roads throughout the county.  Level of service is maintained by responding to disruptive winter weather conditions causing frost, ice formation or snow accumulation on public roads in a prescribed manner.  The plan applies to a continuous six-month period, referred to as the ‘Winter Period,’ from mid-October to mid-April.  Within the plan Roscommon County Council has identified two levels of priority routes for treatment.

§  Priority 1: To be treated during all-weather events. Motorways, national primary roads, national secondary roads, regional and local roads of national strategic importance, regional and local roads providing access to essential services.

§  Priority 2: To be treated as part of normal Winter Service but may have interruptions to treatment in certain severe weather events. Sections of regional and local roads of regional strategic importance.

The Winter Service Plan represents an optimum use of resources and raw materials and any changes to a route in any one area will affect our ability to treat Priority routes. The plan is financed using a combination of TII funding and DoT Discretionary Grants. This funding is also limited and any further changes to the plan will require careful consideration as an increase in winter maintenance coverage will decrease what can be spent on other areas such as local roads, verge trimming, drainage etc.

In relation to relief drivers, Roscommon County Council is bounded by the Working Time Act regarding to driving hours and we are unable to commit to carrying out a tertiary priority route after Priority 1 and 2 routes are complete.  

The Council also each year has a limited emergency fund to assist clearing and gritting severely hit additional access roads during extreme weather events.

Within available resources Roscommon County Council provide an excellent winter maintenance service across all regional and national routes and some local roads appropriate to the road categories and traffic volumes. Any changes to the Winter Maintenance Plan would have to be considered across all of Roscommon’s extensive 3300km of local roads and the significant additional costs will have to be considered from within own resources local funding as part of the budgeting process.

It would not be an accurate indicator to present gritting cost per km of road as several factors are at play and can influence the cost such as variance in road widths, proximity to existing routes, isolated routes, driver rest periods, frequency of coverage subject to weather conditions and concentration rates of application. However, it currently averages €11,000 per night for 20g/m2 application and €7,000 where an application of 10g/m2 is deemed appropriate across the county.

This does not include cost of driver downtime which is mandatory to comply with working time EU Rules on Driver Hours. During extended periods of sub-zero temperatures, the Council may have to apply several runs in 24-hour period.  

Cllr. Fitzmaurice thanked the Director of Services for the reply. He stated that the lack of gritting in certain areas is a serious problem and there are assets idle during the day when the weather is most severe.

Other Members spoke on the matter :

·         flexibility be incorporated in the demand for gritting, especially when one area of the county is more affected than another at any particular time – this can be facilitated by the MD CoOrdinators.

·         Need to look again at a policy to allow community to grit locally where necessary and deal with insurance issues

·         Extra funding should be sought for gritting from Department

The Chief Executive stated that the Director had provided a very comprehensive answer and it is not possible to do everything. The Winter Gritting Route is defined and it is a matter for the Members to provide more funding including from GMA resources. He confirmed that the manpower available and our resources are very tight but the Council will look at additional flexibility. The issue of local gritting by the volunteers in the community would be difficult to implement due to risk assessments required, training and in particular insurance implications for accidents.

The Director of Services Mr. Shane Tiernan stated that any additional funding would have to come from the Council resources. He stated that a very scientific approach is used to preparing the Winter Gritting Programme and as a public document is important that everyone is aware of roads that are gritted at any time. There is emergency funding for extreme conditions and in 2021 this had to be used for flooding at Lough Funshinagh.

Cllr. Fitzmaurice would welcome flexibility and further discussion at the Roads SPC and during the 2022 Budget discussions.

On the PROPOSAL of Cllr Ward

SECONDED by Cllr. Shanagher

It was AGREED to write to the Minister of Transport to provide extra funding for winter maintenance to grit more roads in County Roscommon