Switching the direction of Letterkenny's Main Street urged to lessen traffic woes

A short-term experiment, which would see the flow on Letterkenny’s Main Street reversed, has been called for in a bid to combat the town’s traffic woes.

Mary T Sweeney, Donegal’s Aontú representative, made the call at a public meeting in Oldtown about the lack of joined-up thinking to address the traffic congestion in Letterkenny.

Letterkenny’s Main Street has been one-way since making the switch from being a two-way street back in 1983.

With no bus service on the south side of the Swilly and backroads coming in from Rahan, Lurgybrack and Leck have become clogged with traffic from the likes of Ballybofey and Derry, all forming a bottleneck at Oldtown Bridge when meeting local commuters.

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“There’s not one LocalLink bus coming over that Oldtown bridge,” Ms Sweeney said. “They put hundreds of houses in this area. How dare the council not put no infrastructure in place. Once you go over the Oldtown bridge into town, there are only two options. The back road and what I call the Railway Road - the Pearse Road.

“If you change the traffic flow on Lower Main Street, say from a Monday, the traffic can no longer go down Lower Main Street; it can go over that bridge and give another option, to go up the town from this side. Put gardaí on it and see if it works. Give it one week and then decide. If you could go up the street, it would give traffic better options.”

Ms Sweeney was joined by 100 Percent Redress Party TD, Charles Ward, and his colleagues, Cllr Tomas Sean Devine and Denis McGee. Councillors Michael McClafferty, Declan Meehan, Albert Doherty and Pauric McGarvey sent their apologies.

“I live in Letterkenny,” Cllr McGee said. “It belongs to everyone as it’s the hub of the county. I’m in Ballymacool, where the Council is planning to build 170 houses, which people think is great. You can imagine the chaos coming in then? It’s complete madness. It’s a disgrace.”

Cllr Devine added: “Since we got elected 15 months ago, after a 14-year campaign at defective blocks. What we see at the council level is a disgrace. We’ve been excluded from meetings for mayors and chairs - but whatever. I’ve been in Letterkenny for 20-odd years and they were chatting about a bridge across the Swilly. It’s years and years away. We can’t wait any longer. Half the shops are empty in Letterkenny. We have to make a stand.”

John Anthony Mullan, who was in attendance, suggested removing the lights from the Polestar Roundabout, while another member of the crowd, 12-year-old Rachel, said she was “always 20 minutes late for school” and “doesn’t want to get in trouble.”

Adrian McArt, originally from Letterkenny and now living in Sligo, said it took him one and a half hours to travel 2km from the Glebe to Sweeney’s Shop in Ballyraine in late August.

“They were contemplating the bridge over the Swilly when I moved to Sligo in 1998,” he said. “Sligo, for a similar town, had an inner relief road installed and two upgrades. They have a town bus service that picks up every half hour from 7am to 10 or 11pm seven days a week. We pay our taxes in Donegal, so why are we still waiting? Why aren’t the politicians raising hell?”

Ms Sweeney also gave some local examples of just how bad things are, where a local wheelchair user cannot safely make his way to the shop, due to there being no footpath in place.

“It’s unacceptable,” she said. “It’s shameful we can’t provide a proper pavement in this day and age. Let’s fight for this. There’s a lad who struggles to get to the shop here, cause there’s no footpath and where there is, there’s no drop ledge to it. There’s no pedestrian crossing. These are basics.”

Ms Sweeney says the council’s lack of engagement with the people means they must make their voices heard themselves.

She stressed the need for a united and coordinated approach, with 400 20-name petition sheets, which they plan to get filled, to start the ball rolling.

With the traffic situation getting even worse with the schools reopening this month, Letterkenny is struggling to cope.

“What can we do?” she added. “We have to build people who are contacts and key speakers and I know that’s not always easy. We need people to represent your area. Would you consider taking one to each area? We need to be listened to.

“The people who are failing us are the members of Donegal County Council. There are people with degrees in road traffic management, so someone in the council is dictating that they don't get the right to put forward their suggestions. Either that or the wrong people are in the wrong jobs.

“We need better from our council. Now they hide behind their desks; they can't meet anyone. They need to start listening.”

Ms Sweeney showed a map of a proposed bridge to alleviate Letterkenny’s traffic, which was issued in 2006.

“Thousands have been spent since on consultations and plans, so unless we get together and land at one of the council meetings, we go in and insist we go in, with our petitions, to tell them the County Council,” she said.

“We hear ‘it’s not us, it’s Dublin’ - it’s a lie. The Dublin ones are only there because of the work on the ground being done locally. We have to talk to our local councillors. We don't accept that excuse.

“If these officials are employed to represent you, they have a duty of responsibility to at least listen to you. Form committees and divide into areas. We have the power in our people. We want better conditions for ourselves and our children.”