‘They work perfectly’ - Calls for more speed ramps to be installed in Offaly villages

An Offaly councillor has called for more ramps to be installed in certain villages in the county.

Fine Gael councillor Liam Quinn made the remarks at the February plenary meeting of the Edenderry Municipal District.

Cllr Quinn said: “We need to address some of the traffic speeds in some of the villages and try and reduce it because we’re not making enough progress there.

“It’s the single biggest issue I’ve got in the last 12 months. without question. Every house I went to on every village road, Dangan, Ballinagar, speed, speed, speed.

“People aren’t making it up. If you stand for five minutes at a corner, lorries barrel through the villages.”

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He went on to give the example of a ramp that was installed in the village of Rhode, which he believes has worked well.

“To be fair to the scheme in Rhode, the one thing he [the lorry driver] is not doing anymore is he’s not going through the village at 60 mile an hour, because he can’t.

“He has to drive up on something and it does slow him down. The lorry, which was the problem here before, had a straight road from the roundabout at the power station to Rhode school.

“He could do what he liked and he can’t do that anymore. I would put a ramp or two down further by the power station or down at Woodville and I’d also go down to the school road, one or two down there. The very same roundabout that’s outside the shop.”

Cllr Quinn went on to praise how effective the ramps are and called for them to be installed in other villages also.

“They work perfectly, they do exactly what it says on the tin. I’d put three or four of them in Dangan and put another three or four in Ballinagar and anywhere else that wants them.

“I think it’s money well spent and if it turns out that there’s a problem, well then you can say to people, ‘look you wanted the ramps, we put them in’.

“We’ll see what those issues are but I think definitely the vast majority of people would be happy.”

In response, Senior Executive Engineer Rory Moore said that there are a number of factors which mean that no changes will be made in the immediate future.

Mr Moore said: “As you’re well aware, the Offaly County Council Traffic Calming Policy is still under review and still has to be adopted, so we’re kind of awaiting that guidance.

“Also, while we’re awaiting our budgets to be confirmed for this year, there’s potential that we might get some funding but I don’t think it’s going to be at the level required to solve all our issues.”

He went on to specify where ramps might be implemented if such budget restrictions remain.

“As we’ve discussed before, it might just be for ramps in estates. There mightn’t be the level of money for villages but that depends on time.

“We will have to follow the process under that policy once it’s adopted to see what we can do and where we can do it.”

Mr Moore concluded by saying that despite its limited budget, the council is still evaluating where it might be able to introduce traffic calming measures in the future.

It is understood that a survey was recently carried out in Bracknagh and a similar study is set to get underway in Geashill at the end of February.