Resident told to send invoice for car damage to Laois council

A Laois councillor said he advised a local resident to ask Laois County Council to pay for a repair to a car claimed to have been damaged on the boundary with Tipperary.

Cllr James Kelly, Independent, revealed he took the step due to the lack of repairs to a road that he says is in a ‘shocking state’.

Cllr Kelly flagged problems with the L1510 road at Kilmartin and Ballintaggart, Borris-in-Ossory at a meeting with Council officials for the second month running.

He said he visited the road which links Laois with Tipperary after some works were carried out.

"What they have done since is that they have just gone and patched it. It is just not going to work. They are only putting a sticking plaster," he said.

Cllr Kelly said cars travelling within the speed limit are being damaged. He instanced the broken rim on a wheel suffered by a resident recently.

“They wanted to know who they should send the (repair) invoice to. I said to them to send it to Laois County Council,” he said.

Cllr Kelly said the road is fine on the Tipperary side but a 500 to 600 metre stretch on the Laois side needs to be repaired. He said some other road repair may have to be sacrificed from the roads programme to allow it to be fixed.

“It’s in a terrible state,” he said.

Cllr John King Fine Gael said he and his party colleague Cllr Conor Bergin supported. He said there must be some alignment between Laois and Tipperary councils to have it repaired. He added that flooding is also an issue.

“When the water comes up you can’t tell the road from the field,” he said.

Councillors flagged problems with the council in September and October where Cllr Kelly instanced the damage to the vehicle.

At the September meeting, Laois officials were told by councillors that Tipperary County Council had laid a new surface up to a border bridge but the road deteriorates after crossing the bridge into Laois.

Cllr Bergin said in September that he had received complaints from Tipperary people about the road.

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The issues were raised at meetings of the Borris-in-Ossory Mountmellick Municipal District meeting.