The potential closure of a road near Swinford leading on to the N5 has been strongly rejected by a number of councillors in the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District.
At their monthly meeting this week, the rejection of the proposed closure of the LS5572 was raised by Fine Gael councillor Neil Cruise, who was supported in his call by Fianna Fáil councillor John Caulfield and Sinn Féin councillor Gerry Murray on the day.
Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Smyth did not take part in the debate on the issue, telling the meeting at the end of the debate, that the issue was 'not on the agenda and he didn't know it would come up, but when it does come up for decision, he will not be engaging in it, due to a potential conflict of interest he has, in relation to the ownership of lands in the area'.
Raising the issue, Cllr Cruise said: "In relation to the proposed closure of a road outside of Swinford, the LS5572, I wasn't aware that this had been previously tried ten years ago or so and from the volume of representations that I have got over the weekend, people are totally against this closure.
"The Swinford bypass divided lands and people have lands both side of it, it is a rat run for people to get to Mellick School and for farmers using the road.
"I note that in the N5 Swinford Junction safety report there is no mention of this junction, because possibly there hasn't been any dangerous accidents or fatalities on this road.
"One thing I have noticed, is that on this safety report, there is no mention of an overpass like we recently discussed for the Lisduff junction, which is about to start outside Claremorris.
"I have a lot of reservations about this road closure and I would like this discussed, to be honest. People have to have their submissions in by May 18, but there is a lot of worry about this, there is no alternative routes for people going out there, so people are quite worried and distressed."
Cllr Caulfield added: "I took a lot of calls and have got a lot of concerns about this, there is a huge amount of usage of this, particularly from farming and other residents; no alternative has been given other than to go down to a junction that is much more dangerous and has much more of a bad record for accidents.
"If there is an alternative and there should be, maybe for all, like Lisduff, if they could be brought to one point and an over-bridge put in, but until there is an alternative for those people, I will not be supporting it. To put slow moving agricultural traffic on the N5 for another one or two kilometres several times a day doesn't make sense."
His call was backed by Cllr Murray, who said: "I don't support this either with the amount of local opposition to it, there is an alternative and it entails the type of solution that will take place in Lisduff, Claremorris, and you'd have a proper flyover and deal with all the roads coming out on to the N5, in those circumstances. I would plead with the executive to engage with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII ) on this because it is a multi-million Europroposal, because it should be rolled out sooner rather than later.
"It boils down to TII not properly future-proofing the road structure of Ireland. I think the will of the councillors should be that it should not proceed and put the executive on notice to pursue a proper solution to the issue. I would ask the executive can we withdraw this proposal completely or do we have to have a report from the local authority and then adjudicate on it; certainly, I have been inundated."
Responding to the councillors' concerns, head of the district for Mayo County Council, Padraig Flanagan, said: "This is a discussion for another day, the consultation process has been initiated by the council at the request of TII who have put forward the proposal that the junction should be closed on safety grounds and because of this, the council have advertised the proposed road closure.
"It is a function of yourself if you decide to go ahead on any road closure, this was agreed at workshop with ourselves that we would put this out there to the public for response and that a decision would be made in due course. There are a number of submissions that have come in, ultimately the decision will come before yourself if you want to go ahead with the closure, but that will be after TII have received the submissions and what they recommend following that, as to what is the best course of action; that will probably be in two months at a best estimate."
