Wallace battles council over light for Cloughan

Fears for the safety of motorists attempting to negotiate The Cloughan Inn/Cloughan junction at night were expressed by Cllr Emily Wallace at a recent meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

Cllr Wallace asked formally that the district work with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and the National Transport Authority (NTA) to reinstall lights at that junction.

“[It] is extremely dangerous for road users trying to navigate the junction at night,” Cllr Wallace said.

She added that while she welcomed the fact that flashing warning lights had been installed, “they’re just not slowing the traffic down”.

The response from the executive of the municipal district explained that the new policy is not to provide lighting at such locations.

“The current standard advises that ‘mainline road lighting on the National Road network is generally restricted to urban locations with the mainline on the remaining network being predominantly unlit’,” the response stated.

It went on to say that under the current standard, lighting will not be provided at such a junction on the single carriageway network and that the provision of lighting at such a location would require a departure from standard, which requires TII approval.

The response explained that the rules state that lighting of the mainline shall only be provided where a lighting evaluation has been undertaken and it has been justified that lighting should be provided.

It concluded: “The standard advises that ‘in most instances, it is expected that lighting on the mainline will not be justified’.”

Disappointed at the reply, Cllr Wallace retorted that while she noted the comment about a light being “a departure from standard”, the fact was that the junction in question was not standard, and there previously was a light there.

“Over the last 40 years there has been a light at Cloughan junction and when TII carried out the work, they took that light away from there,” Cllr Wallace said, going on to state that the reason that light was installed in the first place was because it was such a dark junction for traffic traveling from Mullingar to Turin.

“I’ve asked for this before and I’m asking for it again because this council, working with TII, have done great works on that junction, but it needs to be illuminated at night. This time of the year and wet dark nights, it is lethal.”