Bohola residents may block N5 over road safety fears

Locals fear someone will die before fears are addressed

Edwin McGreal

An ongoing campaign to introduce lower speed limits and traffic calming in the village of Bohola could see locals block the main N5 road to Dublin in the coming months.
Last Thursday’s meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District of Mayo County Council heard that there was progress in the matter. The National Roads Authority has told the council that they were having the road surveyed and designed for traffic calming measures.
This was confirmed by the council’s Senior Executive Engineer Ann Sweeney, who, responding to questions about how slow this matter was taken to progress, said this case was ‘probably the fastest’ case she had seen in terms of consultants appointed to carry out the design and she said the council would expect some confirmation in two months.
However James Golden of the Bohola Traffic Calming Action Group hit back at the delays. They have been campaigning for the speed limit and traffic calming for 18 months and wants lower speed limit signs put in as a matter of urgency.
“I do understand that ye (Mayo County Council) are hamstrung in a certain way. But there’s talk of going through ‘the proper channels’. Well going down ‘the proper channels’ could end in someone else being killed,” he said.
“I do not want to come home someday and find out that my wife has been hit. That road is a deathtrap right now. Someone else will be killed in Bohola. Political influence and pressure will make this move. Put in the lower speed limit signs now and traffic calming measures can come later.
“We want this done now to stop someone else being killed,” he said, the passion clear in his voice.
He said the issue was ‘a very serious one for the people of Bohola’ and criticised why it was taking until now for consultants to be appointed.
The meeting heard that Castlebar Municipal District will hold their November or December meeting in Bohola and there should be a follow up from the NRA by then.
Mr Golden said if the residents were not satisfied ‘we will have to take matters into our own hands and we will block the road’.
Some councillors criticised the NRA. Cllr Michael Kilcoyne said the NRA had completely diminished the power of local authorities and councillors.
“Ye would probably have been better off going to the church at the back of this building and praying, ye would probably have got a better solution than coming into us, we are not being listened to,” Cllr Kilcoyne told the Bohola residents present at the meeting.
However Cllr Al McDonnell argued that the council can bring influence to bear on the National Roads Authority.