Poor paths and insufficient lighting in long neglected Ballingarry

The village of Ballingarry has been long neglected, said Councillors during the December monthly meeting of Nenagh Municipal District.

The following Motion was submitted by Cllr Ger Darcy, “That this council upgrade the public lights in Ballingarry village and provide extra lights in the parts of the village where none exist.”

Rosemary Joyce, Executive Officer, pointed out that all the lights throughout the county are being upgraded to LED lights and the Ballingarry lights will be upgraded as well, as part of this general operation. She said that new LED lights will be installed from the Glue Pot pub in the centre of the village to the speed sign on the southern side of the village.

Cllr Ger Darcy said the village badly needs a traffic calming scheme as well. “The lights can't wait. I'd be worried the LED scheme might take quite a while to roll out. This is a matter of urgency. There are a number of gaps where there are no lights at all. I was there recently with local residents. They showed me the need for lights going up to Knockshegowna GAA.

“The village is on the N52 which is a very dangerous and fast road. There's a lot of traffic. We can't wait much longer. It is too dangerous. Health and Safety is paramount here.”

Cllr Michael O'Meara agreed. He pointed out that the Councillors had a very good meeting with Transport Infrastructure Ireland “and we raised this matter. This is very, very doable. If Ballingarry was like Aglish then the County Council could do the work but its location is a liability because it's on a TII road. I think that in reality the TII are hindering us. I think that all we are really getting from them when we meet them about this issue is copy and paste responses.

“The traffic on the N52 going through the village is horrendous. It's especially dangerous when it's dark. New lights and traffic calming measures have to happen now. We can't wait for the rollout of LED lights across the county. The TII seems to be washing their hands of this. The time has come to take the gloves off. Something serious could happen.”

“We have spoken about this on numerous occasions,” commented Cllr Joe Hannigan, “and many people have made representations to us about it.”

“I can't emphasise enough how dangerous it is to walk in Ballingarry,” said Cllr Darcy, “because the footpaths are poor and the lights are non-existent, and the traffic is horrendous.”

Cllr O'Meara said the TII's record regarding Ballingarry is “deplorable. We should get a TII engineer to look at the situation from the Glue Pot to the speed sign on the southern side of the village and see what the engineer says.”

Director of Services Marcus O'Connor said the ESB could come up with a design and plan of action for the area; and give a cost estimate; “and then we could go to the TII with that.”

“I am alarmed,” said Cllr Hannigan, “that the TII should hold us and Ballingarry to ransom.”

Cllr Hughie McGrath pointed out that because the MD has concerns “for the safety of people living there, we should ask the TII to do a safety audit.”