‘Head nor tail’ to speed limit changes on rural roads, say Mayo councillors

THE upcoming lowering of speed limits across Mayo’s local and rural roads from 80km/h to 60km/h has been met with criticism from members of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District.

All but four local roads in the municipal district area – all of which are in the Belmullet area – will see their speed limits lowered to 60km/h on an unspecified day in November.

The only roads exempt from this are Pullathomas to Bellanaboy, Glenamoy to Carrowteige, Bangor to Bellanaboy and Bangor to Glencastle, which were sanctioned for a special speed limit of 80km/h at yesterday’s meeting of the district.

The move is in line with national policy, which will see speed limits on all national secondary roads reduced from 100km/h to 80km/h, while all local and rural roads will be reduced from 80km/h to 60km/h. Roads that have met certain safety standards can be granted a special speed limit with the approval of local elected representatives.

The move was heavily criticised by Westport-Belmullet county councillors, with Cllr Paul McNamara saying there was ‘head nor tail’ to the lowering speed limits.

Cllr McNamara said that roads in his areas were already suffering due to inadequate funding for repair and upgrades.

“I have been shouting and shouting over the last number of years, about how little funding our local roads get, and now it’s coming home to roost with the surveys that are being done on our roads that show they cannot take the speed limit,” he said.

Cllr McNamara added: “The big problem I have is that our regional roads are being left at 80 kilometres [per hour] and our national roads are coming down from 100 kilometres [per hour] down to 80 kilometres [per hour]. In all our roads programmes, all the money that comes from central government, most of that money is spent on our national roads. And now we’re told that the standard of our national road is dropping down to the standard of our regional road. There is absolutely no head nor tail in what’s being put in front of us today.”

‘Poor relation’

Westport-based councillor Peter Flynn said the fact that no road in the Westport area was being considered for a special speed limit showed that West Mayo was ‘the poor relation’ in the county.

Cllr Flynn conceded that there were some roads ‘that in no way’ should have an 80km/h speed limit and that should see their limit reduced to 60km/h.

Erris-based councillors Gerry Coyle and Sean Carey supported approving the special speed limits for their area but voiced concern over the lowering of limits in other areas.

Cllr Chris Maxwell also voiced his opposition, saying that rural Ireland was ‘being left to suffer’ due to a lack of funding for road maintenance.

The Independent Ireland councillor said that a ‘tanker’ of money would be needed from central government to bring the county’s rural roads up to standard.

Heather Gibbons, area engineer for the Westport-Belmullet Municipal District, said that special speed limits for other roads could be considered if another speed limit review took place next year.

The roads with special speed limits in any of Mayo’s four municipal districts will now go forward to the November meeting of Mayo County Council for consideration.