Councillors want more bus shelters in south and east Mayo

Councillors in south and east Mayo have called for a standard template to be made available for shelters at bus stops.

Cllr Damien Ryan was among the local representatives from the Claremorris/Swinford Municipal District who called for more shelters to be installed at bus stops in the county.

Mayo County Council has engaged the National Transport Authority (NTA) regarding the installation of shelters at Shrule, Kilmaine, Ballindine, Ballinrobe, and Knock.

Stakeholder approval, procurement and funding will now be required from the NTA.

“We need to prepare a strategy of how we’re going to deal with every village where there’s a deficit, not just the ones that are named,” said Cllr Ryan.

The Fianna Fáil councillor said there was a ‘non-controversial site’ in Cong where a bus shelter could be constructed.

He also called for an update schedule to be posted at all bus stops.

“For a village like Cong that has such an influx of visitors in the summer, it certainly has to be on the priority list, and I’m not just being parochial about that,” he said.

“But in fairness, it reflects badly on us when you have such massive tourist numbers coming and you don’t have basic infrastructure like this.”

Other representatives argued that appropriate shelter was needed to encourage people to take public transport.

Cllr Michael Burke said shelters were necessary at bus stops on account of the regular wet weather.

“If we want to get people to use that service, wherever it is, we have to provide those shelters ASAP,” he said.

In response, Conrad Harley, Senior Executive Engineer with Mayo County Council, said that provision of bus stops was ‘extremely difficult and time consuming’.

“Everybody wants a bus stop, and everybody wants a shelter, but when you start looking for a bus shelter nobody wants a bus shelter outside their shop and taking away their window viewing space from the view of the passing public. So it’s quite a contentious matter to try and deal with,” he said.

Responding to a query from Cllr John Caulfield, Mr Harley said the council’s Head of Roads, Paul Dolan, was working with TII regarding a shelter for the bus stop in Kilkelly.

Cllr Caulfield had complained that people were being left standing in the rain waiting for a bus to bring them to medical appointments.

“There aren’t as many bus stops as sad-looking in the country,” remarked Cllr Richard Finn.