Over one hundred traders in Ballina attended a meeting on Wednesday night to discuss the ongoing traffic problem since the introduction of the second phase of the traffic managment plan introduced by Ballina Town Council, which was designed to free up the centre of the town by diverting through-traffic away from the commercial centre. However, the scheme was deemed to have had the opposite effect with the heart of the town grinding to a halt from traffic in gridlock.
Speaking to the Mayo Advertiser following the meeting at the Moclair Bar, Mr Patrick Kelly from Hughes Children’s Boutique on O’Rahilly Street stated: “The problem has just got worse and worse. From walking around the town and speaking to people over the last few weeks you can see how badly this has been affecting the traders in the town.”
As the main Christmas shopping season approaches, Kelly stated that for some traders in the town business had fallen so dramatically since the introduction of the new traffic layout that they may not be able to remain open.
“Some of the traders have reported that business down by between 50 per cent and 70 per cent since this plan came into action. People are actually scared to come into the town because you can’t get in and then they can’t cross the road because the traffic is so bad. Even as recently as Wednesday evening there were two trucks stuck on Hill Street and on Saturday afternoon the whole Market Square area of the town was completely blocked up. Where our shop is located on the corner of O’Rahilly Street you see the problem trucks are having trying to get around the corner and having to come two and three feet onto the footpath to try and get around the corner.”
The purpose of the public meeting for traders was to call for the second phase of the plan to be rescinded.
“We sent out close to 250 letters on Tuesday to the traders in the town looking for them to sign them and calling on Ballina Town Council to rescind the traffic plan. By the time of Wednesday’s meeting close to 120 had been returned with 98 per cent in favour of reversing the current traffic plan.
“There was a huge turn out from the business people in the town and everyone seems to be behind it. We have set up a committee now following the meeting and we will meet again next Monday evening. After that we hope to be able to present the letters and our objections to the new scheme to Ballina Town Council sometime next week.”
