Borrisokane up in arms over council inaction on N65/N52

Photo: © Tipp FM

The lack of action on repairing the N65/N52 in Borrisokane has people up in arms.

The current condition of the road through the North Tipp town is being described as a ‘deplorable’ ‘disgrace’.

The local authority says it won’t be carrying out any re-surfacing work because a major project is due to be done by Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

Local residents and councillors says they’ve been waiting too long and they aren’t prepared to wait another 12 months for the job to be done.

There’s been fighting words from Councillor Joe Hannigan who says residents and businesses in Borrisokane are up in arms over the state of their main street.

The road surface has been allowed to deteriorate badly over the past few years and because it’s a main National route – the N65/N52 – it comes under the remit of Transport Infrastructure Ireland – formerly the NRA.

The TII is planning to plough up to 3 million Euro into a major redevelopment of the road in the next 12 months.

Postmaster Enda Heenan is the Chairman of the Borrisokane tidy towns committee – he says the town can’t wait another year for this work to be carried out.

Enda says they’ve been waiting too long already.

Councillor Michael O’Meara agrees that the current situation is unacceptable and says something has to be done this year to improve things…

But the local authority is insisting that it won’t waste badly needed funds doing up a road that will be completely overhauled soon after.

Director of Services for Roads Marcus O’Connor says while the condition of the road does need to be addressed there’s no point in doing anything ahead of the TII project.

Joe Hannigan says he’ll be fighting for action on this and he’s got a theory on why Borrisokane is being allowed to suffer in this way.