Meath County Council Monthly Meeting
1st February 2016, Meath County Council Chamber.

8. Notice of Motion
8.5 Submitted by the Meath Independent Technical Group

Meath County Council call on the Minister for Transport with Transport Infrastructure Ireland to revise the policy and funding regarding Winter Gritting Routes to address the inadequacies of the current system whereby population centres can be excluded due to the designation of roads. Routes to population centres above a reasonable threshold should be prioritised regardless of road designation.

Supporting Information subject to the motion being proposed, seconded and considered.

Meath County Council salts over 580km. of roads across 10 routes in the county each time icy roads are predicted. All National Primary (100km/h – Priority 1), all National Secondary (80km/h – Priority 1) and approx. 80% of all Regional Routes (80km/h –Priority 1/2) are salted. Approximately 15% (by length) of all roads in the county are treated. The M1 (Dublin – Belfast), M2 (Ashbourne By-Pass), M3 (Clonee – Kells) and M4 (Dublin -Sligo – Galway) are taken care of by private entities. The NRA provides full funding to the Council for the salting of the National Road network. There is, however, no central funding for the Non-National (Regional & Local) Road Network. The Council makes limited resources available from its maintenance funds towards the salting of the regional routes. The Council’s resources are fully utilised at present and the only way to add a new route to the Winter Maintenance Plan is to drop an existing route. Meath County Council is not in a position to increase resources or to drop an existing route. However, Meath County Council carries out full reviews during and at the end of each season for the preparation of the following seasons Network.The Salting Network is agreed with Councillors and represents the best prioritised extent of coverage based on road classification, historic weather data, available funding and resources. A map of the salting routes is available on the Council’s website www.meath.ie.

Link to Minutes on Meath County Council.