United call for action on speeding at Ballinea

Offaly County Council has eight flashing signs that tell motorists their speeds – but there are none in the Mullingar Municipal District area, despite a clear need for them in areas such as Ballinea, councillors told officials at the October Mullingar Municipal District meeting.

The focus was firmly on Ballinea thanks to the fact that there were separate motions from Cllrs Andrew Duncan and Ken Glynn calling for action.

Cllr Duncan was calling for a safety audit, while Cllr Glynn wanted the flashing speed warning signs solution applied.

The response from the council to Cllr Duncan’s motion – which had been adjourned from the September meeting – was that following the installation of improved advance warning signs and road markings at Ballinea in 2015, the Council’s Roads and Transportation Section was not aware of any recent accidents at that location, and so it was not proposed to carry out a safety audit at this time.

As it turned out, Cllr Duncan told the meeting, there had been two car crashes since the council’s response to his motion was drawn up.

The motion submitted by Cllr Ken Glynn called on Mullingar Municipal District to include Ballinea in a pilot scheme for flashing speed limit signs, which, he suggested, might assist in slowing down passing traffic.

In response, the council stated that its Roads and Transportation staff have been undertaking a pilot study on the national road network in the Athlone Municipal District in conjunction with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) since 2016.

The initial findings appeared to indicate that the signs were most effective for the first few weeks and should not be left in place for too long at one location, as leaving them any longer can lead to over-familiarity by drivers and thus detract from their effectiveness.

Signs should be moved

“For any pilot study on the non national road network to be effective, any such signs would have to be moveable and a new policy document would have to be put in place with regard to their usage. Any such policy document could form part of a new road safety policy for the entire county,” the response to Cllr Glynn continued.

Cllr Duncan said the problem at Ballinea was one that was “not going to go away”, and he feared someone would be killed there, while Cllr Glynn remarked that the problems at Ballinea have also been raised in the past by Cllr Johnny Penrose.

“I do feel Ballinea would be an ideal location for flashing speed lights,” he said before going on to mark his regret that there are not more speed checks carried out at Ballinea as they are at Loughnavalley.

Cllr Johnny Penrose said he has been making this point since 2002, and he supported the suggestion of flashing lights as a solution.

The Ballynacargy man remarked that there are such lights at Ballymahon and whenever he sees them, they do cause him to slow down.

“The quicker this is resolved, the better,” he stated.

Support came too from Cllr McDaniel, who said that in a neighbouring county, there are eight such sets of flashing lights and they are moved around to different locations.

There was also support from Cllr Paddy Hill, who said the county as a whole should be looked at.

Council director of services Martin Murray said there were benefits to the flashing signs, especially if movable, and he understood TII is drawing up a strategy relating to funding. He said flashing lights for Ballinea should be looked at as part of an overall plan for the county and funding options should be discussed.

In respect of the safety audit, he said that when the response to Cllr Duncan’s motion was drawn up, the accidents of recent weeks had not happened. As there have been accidents now, he intends asking the transportation section to re-examine that location.