*Photograph: John Mangan
1,400 TONNES OF SALT has been used in gritting roads across Co Clare in the past week as part of efforts to minimise the risk to road users during the current cold snap.
Weather forecasts have predicted the coldest night of the year will occur this week with Met Éireann having already issued a Status Orange low temperature/ice warning for Co Clare from Wednesday right through to midday on Friday.
Clare County Council has activated its winter service plan with its severe weather assessment team monitoring the situation and co-ordinating an appropriate response. This team has attended meetings of the National Emergency Coordination Group (NECG).
Supported by Mid-West Simon, the local authority also has a weather initiative in place where a number of additional temporary bed places are available during severe weather conditions. “These extra spaces are being availed of by a number of rough sleepers. All rough sleepers that we engage with are aware of the weather initiative and our Homeless Action Team is engaging with all to encourage them to take up these offers of bed spaces during the cold spell,” a spokesperson for the Council told The Clare Echo.
National secondary, most regional and some of the busier local roads are salted twice a day by the Council since last Wednesday (December 7th). In this period 1,400 tonnes of salt has been used with the salt stock currently being replenished. “The Winter Maintenance team have been working at full capacity and this work is supplemented by Municipal Districts staff who are addressing local issues. Where additional resources have been available problem locations have been prioritised and addressed”.
A spokesperson for the Council added, “Given the scale of the resources involved in delivering this winter service plan, it is not possible to provide this service to all parts of the road network and it may not be possible to ensure that all routes are kept free of ice or snow at all times on the treated routes in this winter service plan”.
There was poor preparation in advance of the conditions, Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) maintained. “I must say local roads are so important, some regional roads were not gritted. A bus went off the road, another bus skidded somewhere else, a milk truck couldn’t get up the hill in Annagh, it shouldn’t happen. It was an emergency and it was well publicised in advance that we would have a bad weekend, I’d hope it would never happen again,” he added while pointing out the amount of school concerts taking place across the week.
With school buses and public transport not operating in parts of West Clare despite schools remaining open, Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) flagged that on Monday morning, “it meant that many people had to drive their children in to school today ironically putting much more traffic on an untreated and very slippery road”.
Similar concerns were voiced by Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) who stressed some rural roads were “particularly affected” but were not getting the same treatment as the main arteries when it game to getting gritted.
Resources are being deployed “to the best of our ability,” Council Chief Executive, Pat Dowling stressed. In West Clare, the gritting of road commences at 7pm in the evening and 4am in the morning he told councillors. “It will continue and be intensified as much as we can. With the best will in the world we will try cover as much as we can, it doesn’t mean every patch of tarmac will be gritted. If there is a particular black ice spot that ye identify please let us know”.
John Leahy of the Council’s roads department confirmed that not all regional roads were being treated. Seven drivers were treating roads over the weekend and the figure increased to ten in recent days. “It is a very difficult situation,” he admitted, “We are going through an awful lot of salt but we have an adequate stock of salt in place. Stick to the priority routes or main roads if you have to drive. We are salting seventy percent of the road network at the moment and we’re at capacity”.
