Berry seeks pedestrian crossing on Ballymahon Road

Cllr Austin Berry this week requested the council to put in place a pedestrian crossing on the Ballymahon Road in Cloghanboy for the people who have to cross to the shop in the local area, especially at the Sonas location. Town Clerk John Walsh said Westmeath County Council had developed a comprehensive signal controlled traffic management solution for the location, which included pedestrian crossing facilities. He said the council was awaiting approval for the proposal and the scheme would be implemented when approval is received. Cllr Berry said he accepted the repsonse, but as this was a long way off the answer was not acceptable. He said he went out to the area for two days recently and stayed for a half hour each time and was amazed to see people gambling with their lives trying to cross the road. Cllr Mark Cooney asked when the council would get approval for the scheme. Cllr John Butler said he supported Cllr Berry as he had had the exact motion down previously. His party colleague Cllr Kevin "Boxer" Moran said the crossing was needed. He said he had told people at the last election that it would be there and now he was going back again and it still wasn"t there. 'Somebody is going to have to make a call,' he said. Cller Kieran Molloy said it was one of the disgraceful things of the council as it had been going on for about seven or eight years. He said it annoyed him to go to Mullingar and see new roads with roundabouts and hardly any cars on them when this was one of the busiest roads in the country. Director of Services Barry Kehoe said he shared the councillors" frustration and said he hated having to give them the same answer. He said he would contact the NRA at the highest level and would do everything he could to get a reply by the November committee meetings. 'We have to get NRA approval, there"s no way around it,' he said. Cllr Berry thanked everyone for their support and said they needed to push the NRA and other bodies on this.