Road safety of residents a priority for Carrabawn campaign

Road safety a priority for Carrabawn campaign


Áine Ryan and Neill O’Neill

OVER 400 people have signed a petition about the serious dangers along the narrow and winding stretch of the N59  at the Westport suburb of Carrabawn. Campaigners, who met with local councillors last Friday week, say they will not stop until the local authority, and such stakeholders as the NRA and the Fisheries Board, address some serious safety issues affecting residents.
“This is simply a safety issue. All we want is that our elderly residents can walk safely on a simple pathway to the shop and our children can travel independently to the skate-park or the Greenway. It is 49 years since my grandparents campaigned for the removal of Dick Harnedy’s corner. It is still there,” mother of four, Joanne McHugh-Walsh told The Mayo News yesterday.
She said that even if the council removed some of the hedging it would improve the safety levels and, moreover, that the newly revived residents’ group would be willing to assist in the upkeep of the measures if an amenity grant was made available.   
Meanwhile, the newly appointed Cathaoirleach of Westport Electoral Area Committee, Cllr Margaret Adams warned at last week’s meeting: “This is a matter of life and death and must be prioritised.”
Cllr Adams, who along with a number of councillors attended the meeting in Carrabawn, has now urged the town council to divert some Smarter Travel money towards developing an old pathway that could be linked to the town’s Greenway and the lake, known locally as Lough Coggeen.
Martin Keating, the Town Manager, said the Smarter Travel programme was over a five-year period and there was a general plan to ‘add some linkages connecting the walking infrastructure around the town to the Greenway’.
However, Cllr Peter Flynn reminded the meeting that two years ago both he and Cllr Adams had proposed that ‘an off-road route, even if only a grass trail, should be developed’ in Carrabawn.
“I believe there is a will from private owners to donate land but has anything been done about this?” he asked. Cllr Flynn said that such pedestrian infrastructure should be prioritised since Westport was advertised nationally as a Smarter Travel town.  

Waiting on accidents
However, the issue was again discussed at last week’s monthly meeting of Westport Town Council, where Councillor Myles Staunton spoke of the ‘flawed’ criteria used by the National roads Authority (NRA), whereby they wait until a stretch of road has seen numerous accidents or fatalities before allocating funding to improve it.  He was speaking in relation to the calls by residents of Carrabawn for safety and enhancement works for the Leenane Road and the road from the High Street bridge to the fire station.
Town Manager Martin Keating said that the Council puts their priorities to the NRA but they only have so much money to spend and the issue is a budgetary one. He added that the realignment of the corner, known locally as ‘Broddie Geraghty’s Corner’, was dependent on a private development planned for that area going ahead.
Councillor Christy Hyland said the NRA should be ashamed of themselves for spending so much money on needless road-signs (including on the N59), and not even being able to spell place names correctly.