Ballinrobe residents to oppose removal of car parking spaces

RESIDENTS of Ballinrobe’s Glebe Street are set to oppose the removal of parking on the street to facilitate new traffic lights.

Works have already begun to install traffic lights at Staunton’s junction on the street, which will see the removal of between three and four parking spaces.

Local people are to voice concerns about the removal of parking spaces at a meeting this evening (Monday) in O’Malley’s Funeral Home with local councillors Patsy O’Brien (Independent), Damien Ryan (Fianna Fáil) and Michael Burke (Fine Gael).

The works, which received Part 8 approval from local councillors in 2020 on foot of a traffic management plan, are expected to take six weeks to complete.

Two bus stops are also to be relocated as part of works aimed at improving the traffic flow through the town.

Glebe Street accommodates commercial premises as well as several dwellings.

No submissions were made to the Part 8 proposals following their publication.

Adrian O’Malley, who lives on the street and is due to reopen a nearby pub on Convent Road, said the loss of parking would impact on public safety and on O’Malley’s Funeral home.

“It’ll have a massive impact on us here. I have two young kids there and my wife. Where do we go with them to get them safely to the house?” Mr O’Malley told The Mayo News yesterday.

“There’s no parking on New Street. Watson’s Lane, you’d be very lucky to get a spot there and even if you do get a spot on Watson’s Lane how do you safely cross the road from there? Cars fly in the Convent Road there, the only thing that slows the cars down is if cars park on the left hand side. It breaks their speed. If there’s no cars parked there they are going to fly into it.”

Mr O’Malley maintained that local people were not opposed to the traffic lights being installed once adequate parking remained in place.

Karen Murphy, another local resident, told The Mayo News she was not opposed to traffic lights but said there had been lack of communication regarding the proposals.

“These plans were made out since 2019 and signed off since 2020… it’s lack of communication. They never came to any of the houses to let us know this is actually taking place until three weeks ago we were told.”

Cllr Damien Ryan told The Mayo News that the plans were ‘not ideal for the people affected’ but said that provision could be made for additional parking spaces nearby.

“The alternative is to do nothing and leave it as it is. The town is in gridlock,” he said.

Cllr Ryan said the council engineers had ‘no real input’ in the project, which is being funded and managed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).