Residents’ survey aims to spur council to fix Moyvoughley road

Residents of a rural Westmeath road are so frustrated at the condition of the route have decided to carry out a traffic survey themselves, in a bid to prove to Westmeath County Council that there is an urgent need for action.

“The schools are back next week, and there are school buses using this road, taking children in from the Ballymore area to Moate,” Joe Flanagan, of Moyvoughley, told the Westmeath Examiner this week as he spoke of local worries over the L1303 road between Moyvoughley and Moate.

Much of it is through bogland, meaning it has always been quite an undulating road, but Mr Flanagan says a lack of maintenance, coupled with a significant increase in traffic since the opening of Center Parcs, has left the road in incredibly bad condition.

“It’s all bumps and hollows,” he said, adding that the worst stretch goes on for about 3km.

However, he said, even if the entire 3km could not be done straight away, there were four specific locations that should be attended to.

“Tempers are rising over this,” Mr Flanagan said, “and the council seem to have completely forgotten about this road.

“We’ve a WhatsApp group and it is hopping with people wondering what we are going to do about it.”

He believes the council is unaware quite how busy the road has become: “Google Maps is sending all the traffic that is coming from Limerick and the south of Ireland up to Moate – and along that road to Ballymore and then on to Center Parcs. Then next week, once the schools are back, you will have parents driving their children on it into Moate and back. It’s an accident waiting to happen.”

In a bid to build their case with the council, the residents of Moyvoughley are drawing up plans for their own traffic survey, to prove how busy the road is.

“It’s frustrating: I mean we all pay road tax, but it’s getting so bad there are even people claiming they’ve had their cars damaged,” Mr Flanagan said.