Published: Friday, 22nd January, 2010 5:00pm

Pay parking for Bailieboro, Cootehill and Kingscourt?

by Tom Carron

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The executive of Cavan County Council will be bringing forward proposals to local councillors in Bailieboro, Cootehill and Kingscourt based on recommendations contained in new traffic management plans prepared for the towns in question. The possibility of introducing pay parking to cover the cost of implementing new traffic management proposals maybe considered, Director of Service, Joe McLoughlin, revealed when outlining the situation to the council.

The Director of Service made his comments when responding to a motion by Cllr. Niamh Smyth seeking measures to improve road safety in the town.

According to Cllr. Smyth, the growth of Bailieboro in recent years posed challenges for road safety and traffic management. Referring to the number of new housing estates that were built in Bailieboro over recent years, she said that all of this development posed challenges in terms of road safety. She described Chapel Road as being as being 'a real black spot' with a material risk to young children attending St. Anne's Primary school. Besides the primary school, there was also a child care facility, the gym and swimming pool, a centre for FÁS training, an Eircom station and a range of services run at the community centre including swine flu vaccination clinics and a day centre for the elderly. All of those services were located along a half a kilometre of roadway and the level of traffic often meant that people living in the adjacent housing estate couldn't get out to work in the morning.

Cllr. Smyth said that she had spoken with the local community liaison officer and the problems seemed to go beyond the gardaí. She hoped that this particular black spot would be addressed.

Making the point that the council was well aware of the issues raised, having been brought up previously by Cllr. Paddy McDonald and himself, Cllr. Sean McKiernan said that it was long gone by the stage when the traffic management report for Bailieboro should have been published. He would have wished that it should have been available to councillors in the context of discussions on the council budget. In relation to the reference by Cllr. Smyth about the Eircom site, Cllr. McKiernan said that Eircom only used a building in the corner of that site and he hoped that the council executive could initiate discussions about procuring the rest of the site as a carpark.

At this stage, Cllr. McKiernan referred to what he described as a lot of rumours that were circulating in Bailieboro, which were deeply unhelpful - namely that pay parking was coming to the town soon. He wished the executive to deal with this matter. He wouldn't support pay parking. As regards the new relief road, he proposed that it be named after the late Tim Ryan, a former councillor. It would be an appropriate commemoration of the late councillor and agricultural advisory officer, he said.

Supporting Niamh Smyth's motion, Cllr. Paddy McDonald said that as someone who lived along Chapel Road he was well aware of the problems along that particular road. Cllr. Fergal Curtin also gave his backing to Niamh Smyth's call for action to relieve the difficulties there.

Director of Service, Joe McLoughlin, informed the meeting that traffic transportation studies were completed in respect of Bailieboro, Cootehill and Kingscourt and those studies were now at assessment stage. The study of each town sought to predict future traffic growth and planned new development. All of the major junctions were analysed and NRA figures were factored into the compilation of the report.

"It would be my intention to bring plans to the local councillors based on recommendations in the transport study. Those studies have implications for forward planning - there was reference made to paid parking and it would be remiss of me not to look at this option in the event of implementing the recommendations. There is a cost factor in implementing the recommendations and this is not just for Bailieboro but for all of those towns," stated Mr. McLoughlin.