Road safety issues at Trien and Keadue highlighted

The cost of carrying out road works is increasing all the time, councillors were informed at a recent meeting of Roscommon County Council.

Council head Shane Tiernan made the comments following a lengthy discussion on road safety measures.

Cllr Paschal Fitzmaurice had proposed that the council install speed ramps in the vicinity of all schools in towns and villages over the next three years. He said that funding for them could be allocated through the annual budget and low cost safety schemes. He was particularly concerned about the village of Trien, near Castlerea where motorists are not adhering to the speed limit.

“On one occasion in the 50km zone, a car was detected by the gardaí doing 114km,” he said. A petition in the village calling for speed ramps was signed by more than 320 people, he added.

In response, the council acknowledged the motion’s intention, saying that road safety was a key priority for it. However, the proposal presented significant practical and financial challenges, and would require substantial funding “far in excess” of what is currently available. Furthermore, speed ramps were not appropriate for all road types.

“As such it would not be feasible to implement on a blanket basis,” the council added. A national speed review for urban areas was also ongoing, and this included consideration for a standardised approach to speed limits near schools.

New Cathaoirleach Domnick Connolly said that this matter needed to be co-ordinated across the county. He said the cost would be “prohibitive” and he asked that the motion be withdrawn until the review was completed. He suggested that the MDs would draw up a list of dangerous spots outside churches and schools in each MD. The MD chairpersons would then present that to the director of services for transport, which the director had agreed to do. Funding would then be sought.

The Castlerea councillor replied that he was disappointed with the request to withdraw “a very important motion”, saying he believed it should be debated. He welcomed that the roads director would review the situation but added that he was aware of a number of ramps installed in Roscommon Town and Castlerea.

“The cost of those was €5,000 per ramp,” he said. “So I don’t see why people should be very worried about the financial strain on the local authority. They’ll improve the safety of all our children going to their schools.” He suggested that €20,000 be allocated from the MD budgets over the three year period for ramps, as well as funding from the low cost safety scheme.

“You could achieve ramps in up to 18 villages with not a huge cost,” he said. Speed signage, he added, “was no good” and would not prevent a motorist from speeding.

“I want to achieve something. I don’t want to come back in a year’s time and we’re still talking about it.” Cllr Laurence Fallon agreed it was an important motion. He also said Cllr Connolly’s proposal was also quite useful.

“Both of them are intertwined,” he continued. “There is no doubt that the only deterrent to speed is ramps.”

Cllr Nigel Dineen echoed these sentiments, highlighting the success of ramps in Cloontuskert.

“Definitely Trien needs them immediately,” he said.

Cllr Tom Crosby said despite the matter being longstanding, nothing really had been done about it. He questioned the issue of cost and estimated that ramps would be at most around €3,000. He highlighted that the road outside Ballyfeeney NS was getting busier and busier.

Cllr Valerie Byrne supported the motion, saying speed signage “was absolutely useless”.

Cllr Leah Cull called on the Department of Education to step in with funding.

“Not too long ago, our government were happy to allocate €9 million for phone pouches, but we can’t come up with funding for road safety,” she said. She added that schools in Keadue and other places were seeking funding for road safety.

Cllr Ruth Conboy supported the motion, saying speeding was a major risk factor in Trien. Cllr Michael Holland also highlighted the problems at Trien.

Cllr John Keogh, seconding the motion, asked that a letter be sent to the Department of Education and the Department of Transport seeking funding, and that in the meantime, the council would continue to do the work itself. This was eventually agreed after a long discussion.

Director of services Mark Keaveney said the council had agreed to look at doing some schemes every year. He added that the council was carrying out safety schemes, highlighting that almost 20 schools had benefited from the Safe Routes To School programme.

Chief executive Shane Tiernan said that there was “little point” in adopting a motion the local authority could not implement.

“It might look good for the media but in reality we won’t be able to implement it,” he said. “So we need to be pragmatic.”

He said that the council wanted to do the right thing, but added that the original motion would be very difficult to implement.

“Other local authorities are going to their members now, stressing the difficulty that they will have in achieving their roads budget due to the increase in costs,” he said.

“That’s going all the time in one direction.”

He said that there was merit in including other agencies which had obligations, but the council would continue to do the best it could with the money it had.

Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.