People living along ‘private’ rural roads ‘will not be able to maintain them due to costs involved’
In one case, a private road servicing family homes in Killarney could cost up to €75,000 to repair.
The disclosure came at a meeting of Kerry County Council, which already has 4,700km of public road network to maintain.
Many people in thecountryside say they cannot afford to meet the high cost of bringing private roads up to required standards before the council assumes control of the route.
Eight residents of the Black Rd at Muckross in Killarney appealed to the council to consider the “no-win situation” in which they found themselves.
The residents said their 1km road was, in reality, a public road as it linked two bigger roads and was traversed by close to 1,000 vehicles per week.
“We accept and support the need for a policy to deal with taking over public roads but we disagree with using the process to absolve council management of any responsibility for the next 20 years,” they said.
The council, they said, “know well” residents could not meet the high costs involved.
Expecting residents to spend €75,000 only achieved the aims of council management — that there would be no applications for road takeovers, the residents claimed in a statement.
Labour councillor Breeda Moynihan-Cronin said it was an unfair policy which prohibited people from having their roads taken over.
Cllr Anne McEllistrim (FF) said a road used by a lot of public traffic should be treated as public and be taken over by the council.
Cllr John Sheahan (FG) said the Black Rd residents were reasonable people who just wanted minor repairs and upkeep carried out and it was not fair to ask them to bring the road up to National Roads Authority standards.
Council officials, however, pointed out it was a priority to ensure roads were safe and any work done should be up to a proper standard.
It was also stated that the council could be liable to civil actions if any accidents occurred on roads not maintained to required standards.
