Galway Bay fm newsroom - New conditions that have been attached to a local road improvement scheme give prominence to farming activity in qualifying for funding.
Galway County Councillors were advised about changes to this scheme - which is known as the Local Improvement Scheme - at their meeting this week.
Two farmers living and working in a townland may hold the key to a better road for all local residents in the future.
New rules governing the Local Improvement Scheme stipulate that farming activity is a requirement along a roadway before it can be deemed eligible for grant aid from the Co Council.
This scheme has been found very useful by rural residents over the years; people living locally would normally provide 10% of the cost of the repair of a road serving some households and the County Council would do the work.
Now, word has come from Dublin that at least two active farmers must benefit from the roadway before funding is considered.
Councillor Peter Roche said he was a Strategic Policy Committee Chairman and he had not heard a word about this condition before.
The Directors of Roads Services, Jim Cullen, said the conditions are attached at central Government level and that the County Council has no role in changing them.
