Ballinrobe councillors blast bypass delays

LOCAL representatives from Ballinrobe have lamented the delay in delivering a bypass for the South Mayo town.

Speaking at the October meeting of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District, local county councillors Damien Ryan and Michael Burke raised concerns about the delay in progressing the bypass due to the level of traffic in the town.

Cllrs Burke and Ryan also raised the issue at the September meeting of the municipal district, where Cllr Burke described the morning traffic as ‘chaos’.

Cllr Ryan told the October meeting that traffic alleviation measures on the N84 were working ‘famously well’ but said that that a section of the bypass needed to be ‘built sooner rather than later’.

The Fianna Fáil councillor said that local representatives supported the installation of new traffic lights on Glebe Street ‘in the face of criticism’ on the understanding that somebody would be assigned to work on developing a bypass for Ballinrobe.

On January 2, 2024, Mayo County Council’s National Roads Office was assigned an employee to work on a Phase 0 strategic assessment report on a bypass for the town.

“Ballinrobe has had more than enough. The councillors stood for election in June, we got quite an amount of criticism about this, but we’re not going to tolerate something that’s running to infinity,” said Cllr Ryan.

A bypass was first formally proposed for Ballinrobe in 2009 when a preferred route was adopted in the Ballinrobe Local Area Plan. The project was subsequently shelved.

Cllr Michael Burke echoed Cllr Ryan’s concerns about Ballinrobe, which he claimed had ‘the biggest traffic problem’ in Mayo.

Cllr Patsy O’Brien, who is standing in the upcoming general election, said the issue needed ‘a political push at the highest level’.

“There’s no reason, with the amount of money that’s in the exchequer…that they can’t sign off immediately on this [when the route is selected], because it’s the most important one,” said Cllr O’Brien.

“They can do it for Adare because the Ryder Cup is coming. I don’t see why they can’t do it for the people of Ballinrobe. Cllr Burke is right, it’s probably one of the worst towns for traffic in the whole country.”