The Drummonds Road outside Scotstown in Co. Monaghan may win the unfavourable title of the worst road in the Northern Sound region. This is the assertion of Councillor, Kathy Bennett, who made an impassioned and angry plea to Monaghan County Council to make the Government pay up to fix the county's local roads.
Roads were top of the agenda at this week's meeting of the Council in which councillors from all parties vied to highlight the worst regional road in their municipal district. Other councillors agreed with Sinn Féin's Kathy Bennett, when she said the Drummonds Road is the "worst she has ever seen anywhere". It was agreed the Drummonds Road, in particular, has been neglected because it "falls between two stools" because while it lies outside Scotstown village, it is within the boundaries of the Ballybay electoral area.
Following her complaints on Monday, as a temporary measure, Monaghan County Council patched up the potholes on the Drummonds Road on Tuesday. For some time now, Monaghan councillors have criticised the €5.9 million shortfall in the county's roads funding from central government. "I can't blame the maintenance staff or anybody else within Monaghan County Council," Cllr Bennett said, "because they just don't have nough money to d the roads. What we need is a complete overhaul of the roads funding. We're still getting the same funding in Monaghan as we did 10 years agobut, the price of fixing and repairing roads nhas went up three times so, we need more funding to do complete resurfacing of raods," Kathy Bennett continued, "Roads don't last forever, especially when they're only filling potholes in them. It's just not good enough."
