CORK CITY COUNCIL has been urged to push the government to fund a major investment plan so it can resurface a number of severely damaged roads in the city.

Images sent to TheJournal.ie by a reader show segments of roads in Cork city that are severely cracked, some with large potholes.

In some cases, it appears as if that section of the road has been previously repaired already and some potholes have been filled in, but the road has not been entirely resurfaced.

Local Sinn Féin councillor Thomas Gould said the council has been under “serious pressure” in recent years to maintain the roads. Budget cuts and a staff recruitment embargo during the recession resulted in neglect of the road infrastructure of the city, he said.

Gould said the recent severe weather during Storm Emma worsened the situation.

“I’ve heard people talking of damage to their car bumpers from trying to avoid potholes on bad roads. It’s Mickey Mouse stuff. A lot of it is just patching up and we need a major reinvestment.

“We requested that after the storms because we’re talking about main roads, roads into secondary schools, roads into housing estates with potholes and big surface cracks.”

He said the council should request additional funding from the government.

What we would need is a grant of funding to do a review of roads – the list of roads that need resurfacing now is colossal.

He said the fact that some of the roads have been left years without improvement means it will now cost substantially more to repair them.

“Sometimes when you are trying to spend less money, it ends up costing you more in the longrun.”

Cork City Council did not respond to a request for comment on plans to improve the city’s road network.