Mullingar Kinnegad MD hear of concerns over pedestrian safety

New pool at Blackhall will generate additional traffic

A warning that Blackhall in Mullingar is not safe for pedestrians was sounded by Cllr Aoife Davitt at the June meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

The Fianna Fáil woman gave voice to deep concern over how the area is to cope with the additional traffic generated when the new regional sports centre swimming pool is built there, and she enquired at the meeting if a safety audit had been carried out – "as requested" – for the area.

The written response provided by the executive stated that road safety audits are only carried out on new projects, but that the link road through Blackhall is currently being examined as part of the proposed Mullingar Sports Centre.

Cllr Davitt stressed that she was concerned as there are a lot of issues there, and the area is used by a lot of pedestrians, and there are no pedestrian crossings.

"So when we are looking forward to putting a new complex there and attracting people to it, we have to have the infrastructure in place," she said, urging that the issue be considered sooner rather than later.

Support came from Cllr Ken Glynn, who said he had already expressed his reservations about a large project there rather than in Robinstown. He said there are some tight turns at present, and when the pool was first mooted, he believed that would mean "ripping up the traffic plan" for Blackhall.

"If the pool goes in there, Blackhall as it is out there today, will have to be ripped apart and started again. Because it’s a massive sea change," he said.

Director of services, Deirdre Reilly, assured the councillors that as part of the Mullingar Sports Complex project, there will be a traffic management plan and design for Blackhall drawn up.

"As part of that, obviously, it will go through a road safety audit process," she said, going on to add that in conjunction with that, there will be a further in-committee meeting with the members about those designs and drawings.

"Outside of that, as a district, we’re looking at Mullingar as a whole in relation to parking and the public and private car parks we have in Mullingar," Ms Reilly added, going on to tell members that the council will also be holding an in-committee meeting with members on a parking strategy for Mullingar.