'We want action and we want it now'

Emergency meeting hears concerns about speeding on the N4 at Rathowen and Ballinalack

We want action and we want it now, before someone is killed in Ballinalack or Rathowen! That was the message delivered to public representatives at a well-attended emergency meeting in Rathowen Community Centre last Wednesday night.

Cllrs Johnnie Penrose, Vinny McCormack, Tom Farrell and Paul Ross, along with Deputy Robert Troy, Minister for State at the Department of Finance, undertook to arrange a meeting between two or three members of the community and Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien, TD, in the near future, and a meeting with the district engineer Willie Ryan next week.

The community is concerned at the volume and speed of traffic through their villages. People are shaking in their houses because of the vibrations. Parents are having to haul their children out of the way as vehicles fail to stop at the pedestrian crossing. Local wheelchair users are risking their lives every time they cross the road; those were some of the assertions made by those present.

About 70 people attended the meeting and many were vocal about their concerns. The public representatives were repeatedly reminded that if they did not support them, they could not rely on their votes in the next election. Geraldine Connaughton, chairperson of the organising committee, said measures were needed to slow traffic through the two villages. She assured those present that another meeting would be called to update them on progress made. “We are here for the long haul,” she advised public representatives.

Ms Connaughton complained about the surface of the road in many parts of Rathowen village. Cllr Penrose announced that €26,000 was being “left out for repairs to the road surface this year”.

Cllr Penrose said the suggestions of the people would be relayed to TII, the governing body responsible for the N4. He said the councillors would also fight for speed ramps to be installed.

Cllr Tom Farrell said that the councillors would be having their annual meeting with TII soon, and undertook to highlight “what you want”. He said he and his colleagues, Cllrs McCormack and Penrose, would arrange for members of the committee to meet the district engineer next week.

Cllr Vinny McCormack announced that the Minister for Transport O’Brien had, that day, confirmed that he would meet representatives from the local community in the coming weeks.

“We will work together as councillors and with the local committee on ideas that come forward,” Cllr McCormack promised. “You in the community witness what is happening daily,” he acknowledged.

Deputy Troy confirmed that Minister O’Brien and district engineer Willie Ryan were prepared to meet the committee. “We will have a cross-party proposal and we will work with the minister to introduce measures until the new road comes,” he added. A proposal would have to be made to TII, who will ultimately fund any infrastructure, he said.

However, Deputy Troy pointed out, nothing will stop some driver behaviour. He referred to “that horrendous accident a number of weeks ago, caused by driver behaviour, and nothing would have stopped it, but thank God no one was killed”.

Cllr Paul Ross said it was “great to see so many at the meeting – people power works”. He pointed out in Newtownforbes a raised tabletop speed ramp was installed and is “working well”.

Garda Damien McCormack, stationed in Multyfarnham and living locally, said he would be delighted to hear what the people had to say, and he would take their suggestions to Superintendent Bláithín Moran in Mullingar. Among the suggestions are that speed cameras be installed either end of both villages and that gardaí liaise with local people when closing roads and putting diversions in place.

Greg Hope of Ballinalack Tidy Towns called for speed cameras both sides of the village. He said that “big lorries are flying through the villages”. “We have wheelchair users crossing the road and they will get ploughed out of it,” he warned.

According to Jeremiah Nally, 7,000 vehicles a day go through the two villages. He spoke of the number of accidents, not just in the villages but both sides of them.

“We have had to call this public meeting to be heard! It’s not good enough,” Mr Nally declared. He said the committee had invited Westmeath County Council to the meeting and got no reply, just an acknowledgement to say the invitation would be passed on. Mr Nally spoke of an incident the previous Friday evening when a man collapsed and it took over an hour for the emergency services to arrive because they are under resourced. “We can find money for refugees, no disrespect, but it is not fair,” he declared to loud applause.

‘Rural areas forgotten’

“Rural communities are being forgotten and are disintegrating because we are not getting the infrastructure and services to support them, he continued, remarking that it was “very frustrating”.

“We love where we live; we want to be safe and our elderly residents and children to be safe,” he said.

Mr Nally urged that any commitment give at future meetings with TII, the minister or the council should come with clear timelines. He said it was not enough to install safety measures – they have to be maintained. He said the speed sign on the Longford side of Rathowen had been turned to the side for months. Weeks before Christmas, he reported that the lights on the walkway from the village to the church were not working for weeks, and still nothing has been done.

Mr Hope added that traffic lights in Ballinalack were out since a lorry hit them and said that a repair crew had to come from Mayo to fix them, “and they won’t come out unless there is five or six of them” to fix. Ms Connaughton said the lights on the school lane and the go slow sign at St Thomas’s school in Rathowen, were not working either, and complained that drivers are not stopping at the pedestrian crossing. “Something has to be done before some of our children are hurt,” she warned.

David Morgan, principal of St Mary’s NS, Rathowen, said the situation “is having a massive impact on our decision making on a daily basis”. He explained that when deciding whether to take the children to the local playground on a Friday afternoon, the school management has to decide if it is “worth the risk”. “Our children are being deprived of opportunities in the community,” he stressed.

Mr Nally asked if a school warden scheme could be introduced at key times. Cllr Farrell said that the councillors could put that proposal forward. A woman in the audience suggested that the committee was just being fobbed off, until the new bypass road was introduced. She said she drops her children off at a crèche in Rathowen and “every time I turn into it I am taking my life in my hands”. “It’s scary, the volume of traffic coming through the village,” she added.

She said that the “tabletop is a great job” in Newtownforbes, and in Cavan fixed speed cameras are slowing traffic. Another man said that two tabletop ramps at the hospital in Mullingar “are the best thing ever”.

A man in the audience said that fixed cameras both end of the villages, fines and penalty points were the only answer and argued that ramps are “a nuisance, a nonsense and stop no one, and are way more expensive than cameras”.

“Ramps, ramps, ramps is all we hear from public representatives; obviously you were told to push them,” he said.

In response, Cllr Farrell pointed out that cameras are illegal and cannot be installed until the law is changed, but admitted that he did not know what was keeping the government from changing the law.

“I can’t see anything happening soon in either village,” remarked a disillusioned member of the audience. “I wouldn’t be hopeful of meeting Westmeath County Council soon when they hadn’t the courtesy to answer our invitation to come here tonight. It is an absolute disgrace!”

After a recent serious accident, Rathowen people had to wait for someone to come 50km from Athlone to clear the road, another woman remarked. It was agreed that Rathowen should be administered from Mullingar, not Athlone, and it was suggested that the review of the electoral boundaries next year will, hopefully, address that issue.

For those who did not wish to speak publicly, there was a suggestion box in the room; a plan will be formulated, based on suggestions made.