A Galway city councillor has called on Galway City Council to take action on overgrown trees blocking road signs.
Independent councillor Terry O’Flaherty said that visitors to Galway are experiencing a number of road signs blocked by overgrown trees.
She said: “This is happening all over the city and it is causing a lot of problems for visiting drivers who may not be familiar with the area. We need the city council, as a matter of priority, to go around the city, identify the problem areas, and cut back the branches of trees that are blocking signs.
“The city is in the middle of its tourist high season and we should do everything we can to at least help people get where they need to go, whether they are trying to get to destinations in the city itself or to get through the city to Connemara and elsewhere.
“I reckon that many of our tourist drivers are getting lost because they haven’t been able to see direction signs for where they want to go, or at least not able to see them in time. There’s a question of safety involved here too — having signs blocked or partially blocked presents the risk that drivers may make sudden lane changes coming up to junctions when they can finally see the signs.
“That can create a danger of collisions, especially with the surface of many roads made particularly slippery and visibility reduced by the kind of heavy rain from the sudden cloudbursts that we tend to get at this time of the year. It’s not something that’s really much of a problem for drivers who live in Galway and are well familiar with their routes, but we owe it to the people who come to spend time and money in our city and county to take steps that will help make their visit that bit better.”
