New Ballinrobe traffic lights cause ‘chaotic’ traffic

THE level of traffic in Ballinrobe at school drop-off times has been branded as ‘chaotic’ by a local councillor.

Cllr Michael Burke said he received numerous phone calls after some cars took 45 minutes to get through Ballinrobe when schools recently reopened.

The Fine Gael representative said school buses were forced to drop children on the side of the road due to the level of congestion in the town on one particular morning.

Raising the issue at the monthly meeting of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District, Cllr Burke said some people were being blocked from going to appointments while parents were dropping their children to St Joseph’s Primary School and Ballinrobe Community School.

Cllr Burke said that recently installed traffic lights were ‘functioning fairly well’ but were causing problems for traffic coming from Watson’s Lane.

“It hasn’t solved the problem, and it was never going to, we never said that,” said Cllr Burke.

Cllr Patsy O’Brien said that the local people had been ‘let down’ and likened the recent traffic management measures to ‘shifting chairs on the Titanic’.

The Independent councillor said that more parking spaces were needed to give more space to cars and buses dropping off children to school.

Cllr Damien Ryan said that the council should send an engineer to meet the management of both schools to discuss what could be done to alleviate some of the school traffic.

“Intensification is the issue. There is 1,400 or 1,500 children going to the two schools, and with the best will in the world, the lights were always going to have and impact on that,” the Fianna Fáil councillor said.

St Joseph’s Primary School has an enrollment of over 400 while over 870 students and staff attend Ballinrobe Community School on a daily basis.

Cllr Ryan said that the delivery of a slip road from the Claremorris Road to the Kilmaine Road would be a ‘huge gesture’ towards the schools - which have received €50,000 in funding for Active Travel measures respectively.

Conrad Harley, Senior Executive Engineer with Mayo County Council, said that the traffic lights ‘have improved the situation in general’.

Mr Harley said further improvements could be made with the delivery of the Active Travel projects at both schools, followed by a third phase connecting them with the Kilmaine Road.

Referring to the level of traffic last Wednesday, Mr Harley said a ‘perfect storm’ had been caused by wet weather and unfamiliarity with the new traffic regime.

Tom Gilligan, Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Roads, said that a bypass was ‘crucial’ for reducing traffic in Ballinrobe.

Mayo County Council identified a preferred route for the N84 Ballinrobe Bypass in 2008 but funding for the project was subsequently suspended.

The council’s National Roads Office began preparing a strategic assessment report on the bypass at the start of this year.