Council works promised for this year never happened
The Tullyallen Road Safety Committee was delighted earlier this year when Louth County Council allocated €60,000 to provide traffic calming measures to make the Main Street in Tullyallen safer, especially in the vicinity of the school.
The work was to have taken place this year, something which they had spent ten years campaigning for.
Yesterday however, their delight, which was shared by Councillor Michelle Hall who had supported their campaign, turned to frustration and disappointment when it emerged that actually there is no sign of the work being started in the immediate future.
Councillor Hall told Drogheda Life that she had received reassurances from Louth County Council that the work would commence in 2021 and would include pedestrian lights, speed bumps and a zebra crossing at Tullyallen NS.
As late as this November Council engineers told Councillor Hall that, following some redesign, the road works would be carried out before the end of the year.
“It was with shock that I read in the Chief Executive’s report in December that the tender cost had now exceeded the funds allocated” she said.
“This had not been relayed to me at all even at the December meeting of Drogheda councillors. There had been plans drawn up for a full set of traffic calming measures both at the school and on the Main Street.
“I was informed that only one set of lights could be installed with the funding and accepted that as a start, even with delays from contractors, but now to find out that nothing will be carried out in the immediate future is a disgrace.
“This road is known by the Council to have extremely high numbers of vehicles including HGVs, exceeding the speed limit, with a large primary school adjacent to it. For it to be last on the list of works for 2021 and now, no plan in place at all, is doing a huge disservice to residents in Tullyallen,” Councillor Hall concluded.
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Tullyallen native Ann Carolan and parent of a student in Tullyallen National Scool said: “I delivered a presentation on behalf of Tullyallen Road Safety Committee to officials and councillors, outlining the need for effective road safety measures to be implemented in Tullyallen. “
There are over 500 children in Tullyallen School and a population of almost 3,000 residents in the village but there are no pedestrian crossings and no traffic calming measures anywhere in Tullyallen with a speed limit of 50km at the school.
“When the Road Works Programme was announced, I welcomed that Louth Co Council had allocated €60k to the issue of road safety in Tullyallen” Ann said.
“Yet here we are, going into 2022 and there has been no road works undertaken by LCC in Tullyallen to address any of the issues raised by us in our presentation two years ago.
“Where is the €60,000? What has it been allocated to? Why had we been led to believe that these works would happen in 2021?” she asked.
“This issue has been highlighted by the Road Safety Committee for the last 10 years and we close another year with still nothing in place to keep our children safe as they walk through Tullyallen. Shame.”
Cllr Hall has requested a full report on the tender process, costing and communication, to find out why the works aren’t going ahead as planned. She has also asked that a plan be laid out to get the works commenced as soon as possible.
