Just 1 in 30 CIS road projects to be carried out in large area of Kilkenny

A long backlog has developed in a scheme that allows communities have road improvements carried out at a relatively low cost, with county council support.

Just one project will be carried out this year under the Community Involvement Scheme (CIS) in the Callan Thomastown area - despite a list of almost 30 applicants.

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At the March meeting of Callan Thomastown Municipal District councillors it was revealed that just one project in the area will be funded this year.

Under the CIS a community contributes 20% of the cost of the project. It is an opportunity for communities to have road repair work carried out at relatively modest cost on local roads and cul-de-sacs that would not normally be included on the council’s main roadworks programme.

In the normal course of a council’s road works programme, repairs to minor county roads would only be considered towards the end of the programme after more heavily trafficked routes had been dealt with and the purpose of the CIS is to facilitate local participation in the repair of roads so as to allow improvements to be made sooner than might otherwise be the case.

Callan Thomastown area engineer, Declan Murphy, explained to local councillors that a budget of €169,572 has been allocated to the project in the district this year.

This will allow just ‘the one on the top of the list’ to be addressed this year. Mr Murphy said the project in question will be for 1.6km of roadway.

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The overall roads budget in the Callan Thomastown Municipal District this year will be almost €6.4 million.

Proposing the adoption of the budget and roads plan, Councillor Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere said “any day we get €6.4 million into the district is a great day.”