Roundabout ruled out – in favour of another survey

A furious Cllr Ken Glynn was left reeling last week when colleagues in the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad voted to hold off on changes to the junction at McDonald’s until they receive the findings of a new survey of traffic flows in Mullingar.

The move knocked on the head Cllr Glynn’s suggestion that the council reinstate a roundabout at the controversial junction of Oliver Plunkett Street, Austin Friars Street and Castle Street.

During the debate on the issue, Cllr Glynn appeared to have the support of what seemed a majority of councillors for his motion asking that a roundabout be designed and reinstalled at the junction – but in the vote on a counter proposal by the mayor, Cllr Bill Collentine, against reinstatement of the roundabout, two of the eight councillors present abstained. Those who voted with Cllr Collentine were Cllrs Frank McDermott, Denis Leonard and Hazel Smyth; against were Cllrs Glynn and Emily Wallace and those who abstained were Cllrs Andrew Duncan and Aoife Davitt.

Cllr Glynn had sought a vote on his proposal after he received the support of four other speakers for his claim that since the old roundabout was replaced with traffic lights, there had been ongoing traffic problems.

It was clear from the off that Cllr Glynn would be relying heavily on the support of his colleagues as the formal written response from the district executive made plain that they were not in favour of reverting to the roundabout solution.

The executive response stated: “Since August 2020, traffic flow in Mullingar has operated as well as, if not better than before these very successful enhancement works, which have greatly improved public realm and pedestrian safety, were carried out. This included the busy Christmas period at a time when no Covid restrictions applied, and remains the case.”

The executive went on to state that it is intended that further improvements will be made to Mullingar through the recently announced Active Travel Programme, supported by the National Transport Authority and future rounds of the Urban Regeneration Scheme.

“The Mullingar Transportation Study will be completed, which includes an analysis of the junctions,” it concluded.

Cllr Glynn rejected the claim in the response that there had not been issues over Christmas, adding that as someone who had worked in retail in Mullingar town, he understood the effect that disruption to traffic can cause.

“It was mayhem at times,” he said, arguing that the recent Covid restrictions, because they had kept the town quiet, had disguised the extent of the traffic problems.

“A fantastic job was done on the enhancement works – no doubt about it,” he continued.

“Mullingar is a safe place to walk; it’s a great place to shop.”

However, he warned, it was not good for business in Mullingar to have a situation in which motorists would rather avoid the town centre.

“It’s time to put this to bed and I am asking every member here today to support my motion, and finally get this particular junction sorted one way or another once and for all,” he stated.

Cllr Aoife Davitt was in agreement and said she was aware that Cllr Andrew Duncan too had raised concerns over the issue in the past, as has Cllr Paddy Hill.

Stating that every time she walks down the street, the subject is raised with her by constituents, Cllr Davitt said that the last thing the council wanted to do is to get the issue wrong again and discourage people from coming in to town.

Cllr Davitt said the former director of services had assured councillors that if they were not happy with the traffic, the roundabout could be reinstated.

“Absolutely 100 per cent I agree with Cllr Glynn and support this motion,” she stated.

Cllr Andrew Duncan said he was glad that Cllr Glynn had put the motion forward; he was likely to have made a similar proposal himself in the next couple of months: “It’s clear to me it isn’t working,” he said, stating that there was plainly an issue that was not going to be resolved unless they put a roundabout in there.

“I’m supporting Ken’s motion for the reintroduction of a roundabout there,” he said.

Cllr Hazel Smyth said the pedestrian timings seemed to be off as well and that sometimes it could take a long time to get to cross the road and she felt the general flow of traffic through the town needed to be looked at.

Cllr Emily Wallace declared herself too “fully in support” of Cllr Glynn’s motion, saying it was disappointing and frustrating that “these so-called ‘intelligent lights’ are not doing what they are supposed to”.

Director of services Deirdre Reilly, responding to the points raised said there will always be some issues at this junction at peak times but that any adjustments should be made only as part of a wider objective, such as the introduction of the new Active Travel plan.

She described the request made by Cllr Glynn that the roundabout be removed as being “strong”.

Cllr Glynn responded that the elected representatives had to put forward the views of the electorate, and as such, he was standing over his motion.

Pointing out that his motion had been supported by the other councillors who spoke, he demanded to know was his motion going to be acted upon or not.

Senior Executive Officer Pat Keating intervened to say that funding has been received from the National Transport Authority for a traffic assessment report that is to look at all aspects of traffic flow through Mullingar. He said that consultants are to be appointed to undertake this analysis and on that basis, to make a decision on the roundabout would at this stage be “premature”.

Cllr Glynn stated that two years into the process, he was not interested in more consultants’ reports on the issue, while Cllr Wallace admitted she was puzzled as to why yet another traffic report was needed: “If everything is going as it should, why are we doing that?” she asked, adding that all speakers had agreed there were problems.

Cllr Wallace also wondered how long councillors would have to wait to receive the findings of that report.

Mr Keating explained that the 2018 traffic studies were largely to enhance the town, but these newer ones are for a wider assessment of the town from an Active Travel perspective.

Mayor Bill Collentine was of the opinion that it would be worth awaiting the findings of the new study, and his proposal that this course be adopted – a counterproposal to that of Cllr Glynn’s – was seconded by Cllr Frank McDermott.

Following the vote, Cllr Glynn commented that he was not happy but he said respected democracy.