Kilkenny councillor comments on 'pothole so big you could lose a small child in it'

Cllr Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere has described a pothole in his area as ‘so big you could lose a small child in it’.

Cllr Cleere is one of a number of councillors that made comments in relation to the roadway network in the county at the latest full council meeting in Kilkenny.

The comments came following a local authority presentation setting out the vision of the county’s roadworks scheme for 2024.

Most of the councillors thanked and commended the engineers for their work maintaining and upgrading the county’s road network, but many also called for additional funding to address some shortfalls.

Cllr Cleere, in his point, stated that the local authority ‘is being asked to do more with less’.

“The cost of materials has skyrocketed over the years and inflation is absolutely through the roof,” he said.

Cllr Mary Hilda Cavanagh stated that ‘the sides of roads are breaking down due to heavy machinery and width of the roads’.

“It’s been months since we asked for more money for the Community Involvement Scheme and we were lucky enough to get additional funding for the Local Improvement Scheme but there is still a fifteen year waiting list,” she said.

Cllr Pat Dunphy, in his contribution, commented on the issue of ‘potholes opening up since Christmas’ and asked the local authority if they could ‘look at some back-up support staff’.

“We are not being thought about in South-East,” he added.

Director of Services Tim Butler told councillors that ‘funding for climate change works has been very successful’ but added that the local authority ‘can’t mitigate for rainfall incidents in advance however funding is relatively available from the Department for emergency works’.

Concern was also raised on the topic on delayed road schemes including the N25 Waterford to Glenmore scheme.

“We will be trying to put a bit of extra pressure on to get these schemes up and running,” Mr Butler said.

He also noted that the overall number of road improvement works undertaken in Kilkenny is above the national average.