Pedestrian footbridge could alleviate safety concerns at Castlefin bridge

A pedestrian footbridge at Castlefin Bridge could alleviate safety concerns there, it has been claimed.

The idea was mooted by local councillor, Gary Doherty at Monday's Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District meeting. He said he was worried about pedestrian safety in this area and had raised his concerns about this matter at a number of municipal district meetings in the past.

"I have been looking to extend the footpath on the Ringsend side. It's not safe for pedestrians thanks to the speed of the cars coming down from the Castlederg side towards the bridge. Locals are very fearful that something serious is going to happen. We previously put this bridge on our priority list for this term. I'm just wondering what else we can do to prioritise it further. There are serious safety concerns on both sides of the bridge. It's mainly the traffic on the town side as bits of the wall keep getting knocked off."

Cllr Doherty asked the council to examine the possibility of developing a pedestrian footbridge there.

"The pedestrian  footbridge at the Twin Towns and at Dromore, Killygordon have been great  successes and there is no reason at all why we can't have something similar at Castlefin bridge to alleviate the safety concerns."

Senor roads engineer Claire McGeever said the bridge was submitted as part of the Specific Improvement Grant application to the department for funding but no money for it has been received.

"We did provide further information at the beginning of this year to help the application and highlight the issues. We are doing our best to get it higher up the priority list but until it gets funded survey and design can't start," she said.