PLANNING officials in Donegal County Council are to adopt a new get tough policy on house builders who damage public access roads.
The warning comes amid growing concern at the number of recently restored roads which have been damaged by delivery lorries to construction sites.
At this week's Council meeting Mr Francie Coyle, Director of Planning, asked for members co-operation in adopting the new measures.
"In future, where roads have been damaged the bond will be forfeited and used to clean up the road," Mr Coyle said.
In larger, multiple developments, especially in urban generated areas, developers will have to provide a certain level of infrastructure 'up front' before planning will be considered.
"Such future developments have been covered in the new County Development Plan," Mr Coyle said.
Members heard that damage being done to weak County Roads as a result of granting of Planning Permission for developments was also a 'huge concern' to the Roads Section of Donegal County Council.
"The Road Area engineers have found it very difficult to get others to repair roads that have been damaged as a result of heavy lorries delivering construction materials to sites along weak and narrow roads. There have been some cases where delivery lorries have reduced their load and used alternative routes but this is difficult to enforce," Mr John McLaughlin, Director of Roads, said.
Cllr David Alcorn said that many County roads had been left in a "serious state". Agreeing, Cllr Patrick McGowan said that it was an issue which affected every member of the Council.
"It's up to the planning office to follow up these multiple developments to make sure they comply. There are ten new houses being developed in Drumkeen and there's a river running down the road in front of them. I didn't see one cattle grate or drain at the entrance to any of these houses," Cllr McGowan said.
Cllr Ian McGarvey said there were similar problems in the Killylastin area of Letterkenny.
"The difficulty is that some developers seem to be able to do what they like in certain areas. There is nothing but frustration out there," Cllr McGarvey said.
Cllr Francis Conaghan said that his party colleague, Cllr Alcorn, had raised this issue on a number of previous occasions.
"In future, we can request that things such as footpaths and lighting are done in advance of the development. These are simple, basic things which are causing a lot of heartache," Cllr Conaghan said.
