Cash-strapped council needs ‘dig-out’ to maintain roads

Communities may soon be asked to literally give ‘a dig-out’ to a cash-strapped and under-manned local authority to maintain its rural roads.

A proposal is to be brought before Cork County Council’s Transportation Special Purposes Committee to encourage communities to get involved keeping dykes clear so water can drain into them from roads.

Cork has 12,000km of roads — one-sixth of the country’s network — but no longer has the staff or money to keep some of them intact, especially when it come to ensuring old-style ‘shovel’ maintenance of roadside drainage channels.