Council fury over condition of road

THE Third World condition of the Bandon-Clonakilty road has led councillors to demand that the National Roads Authority explain why it is so neglected.

Local councillors were so enraged by a letter from the NRA that assistant manager Theresa White is sending the NRA pictures to show how bad the situation is.

A month ago councillors wrote to the NRA outlining their concerns about the ‘Third World’ state of the N71 and demanding a meeting. But the reply was so bland, it failed to answer any of their questions.

Cllr Donal O’Rourke (FF) claimed the National Secondary road was a potential death trap. “If you travel the road and get caught behind a tractor it’s intolerable. There’s no hard shoulder for miles and miles on end and little chance to overtake. We want a proper, quality national secondary road. We want answers and we want them now. If you bring industrialists to the region they’ll just turn around and go home.”

Cllr Tadhg O’Donovan (FG) said he believed Cork was losing out on funding because there was nobody from the county on the NRA board.

Cllr Joe Carroll said he knew a school bus driver who had been instructed by a family not to drop their children outside their front door because the road was so dangerous. Instead he drives them to another place where their parents picked them up.

The council is writing to the NRA demanding that a senior official address their next meeting in early June.