Motorists will have to surrender road space to cyclists and walkers - council

An admission that motorists are going to have to surrender some road space to accommodate cyclists and walkers has been made by a senior county council official.

“What we will probably end up doing is taking road space away from cars and giving it to pedestrians and cyclists – and that is always a difficult thing to do in urban areas,” director of services Barry Kehoe told members of Westmeath County Council as he revealed that planning will begin on extra cycle routes this year thanks to a €12m pot earmarked for cycling infrastructure out of an overall transportation works budget of €36m.

The €36m allocation the council has received is its largest since the times when it was constructing motorways, Mr Kehoe told the meeting, going on to explain that €16m of the allocation was from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and of that, some €7.67m was for cycleway-type developments.

“When combined with the funding from the National Transport Authority (NTA) and the Department of Transport for Active Travel of €4.5m and the €850,000 that is in the DTAS for Active Travel projects, that means there is over €12m towards cycling and walking infrastructure,” Mr Kehoe said.

“So,” he continued, “we are really in a position now to start making significant progress, and moving away from cars – especially for shorter journeys – and towards cycling and walking.”

Mr Kehoe also stated that the Department of Transport funding of €13.2m is 16 per cent up on what would have been available last year – and that is reflected in the condition of regional and tertiary roads.

Cllr Louise Heavin was pleased at the level of the allocations: “I am really pleased that there is a shift in the way we do roads in Westmeath in that we are looking at more active travel infrastructure and we are actively pursuing areas where we can improve and develop footpaths and cycleways – and long may it continue,” she said.

Cllr Denis Leonard too welcomed the funding – but cautiously: “We need to put this in context,” he said. “€368 million was announced per annum for the next four or five years but only about €70 million seems to be going to local authorities,” he said, adding that the rest seems to be going largely to Dublin and Limerick and Cork, and of the funds allocated to rural counties, most seemed to be going to the bigger towns.

Stating that while he welcomed the funding for Athlone and Mullingar, Cllr Leonard said it was important to make sure people in places such as Kinnegad and Rochfortbridge also had access to greenways and cycleways, which at present they don’t.

Cllr John Dolan welcomed the cycleway funding and observed that we have to maintain what we have and extend the network.

However, he said, remarking that when the purchase was made recently of 70 new buses, none of them had space for carrying bikes, which, he said, meant there is a lack of co-ordination in evidence.

“We are providing facilities down here and yet people cannot get their bikes on the bus to Athlone or Mullingar to use them,” he said.

Cllr Frankie Keena felt Athlone could have fared better in terms of its allocation and he pushed to have an investigation carried out into the possibility of having a greenway provided between Athlone and Glasson and on to the Royal Canal.

A case for the installation of segregated cycle paths was made by Cllr Hazel Smyth, who argued that mere paint was not enough. She also asked that there be increased numbers of pedestrian areas provided to encourage people to go shopping and to avail of new outdoor dining facilities.

Cllr Paddy Hill said he felt north Westmeath was being left behind and he hoped it could benefit in the future.

From Cllr Tom Farrell came the view that there should be a greenway provided between Clonmacnois and Athlone.

Mr Kehoe rejected the claim that areas were just getting the “leftover” money from the Active Travel funds, and he said that much of the €4m from the Department of Transport was for the design of schemes that will be done in future years.