Calls for ‘immediate’ stop on new road traffic management plan for Donegal Town

The new one-way traffic system in Donegal Town is continuing to cause controversy, just five weeks after it was launched.

One local resident, Shane McCauley, who is also a civil engineer, says it is time to call a halt on the project until it is re-evaluated and to engage with residents and business owners and “possibly revise the design based on that and then maybe move forward with a plan”. 

He said that the new system, as well intentioned as it was, is currently creating chaos for drivers getting around the town.  

And he has received the backing of Town Mayor Padraig Kennedy and over a 100 signatories, at the time of writing, who have supported an online petition/calls for it to stop. 

On his Facebook page at the weekend, Mr McCaukey said the was setting up a new groups called ‘Residents Against Newly Developing Traffic Congestion in Donegal Town’: 

“The one way system in Donegal Town is not working. The planned works need to be stopped with immediate effect, review the current traffic volumes facing difficulties and revise the plans,” he said. 

Above: Coming onto the Diamond from Tirchonaill Street (Photo: Shane McCauley)

“Otherwise we are facing a lifetime of traffic jams in our beautiful little town like never before. As a member of one of the few remaining families with a residential location within the inner limits of the town, I demand a review. 

“I plead for an immediate reaction and postpone any further works until a more appropriate layout is agreed with all the residents. I attach a few images of the newly developing traffic congestion at times where in my lifetime of 45 plus years I have ever witnessed. 

“To force all the traffic from Killymard and the North of the town developments into the Diamond beggars belief,” he explained 

He added that anyone wishing to join his petition should leave their name and comments on his Facebook/Meta page. 

The debate has carried on. On Monday morning he spoke to Ocean FM Radio along with Mr Kennedy.

He told host Niall Delaney that the new system was not working and adding to congestion in the area, despite the huge amounts of effort, planning and money that go into projects like this and others:

“Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t work out. And in this case, it is not working out. I am born and bred in Donegal. It has been in operation for five weeks, so as a parent there I am dropping there into Tirconaill Park, and that is when I realised there was an issue, facing traffic jams on a Saturday morning or half an hour, 25 minutes to get into town.”

ABOVE: Congested traffic coming into the Diamond from the Bridge Street direction (Photo: Shane McCauley) 

He said that visiting parents on Castle entailed another 25 minute delay.

“Basically, they have just created a huge mess in the town in terms of traffic management.”

He said that he had been giving it a chance to see how it operated and had received a huge social media response when he outlined his concerns online. 

Traffic coming in from the north east of the town was being forced into one zone, he said.

“They’ve cut off the main artery to the east of the town by attempting to make it one way along Water Street, so it’s not making sense what they are doing, “he added, while pointing out that he was a civil engineer himself.

He claimed that the design was not right, especially in the context of current day environmental issues and traffic management. He said there were now places of traffic congestion, where there never had been before “in our lifetime”.

He had started a petition, which had been received, mainly because it was bringing stress to people when it was not needed or warranted, whether going to schools or coming from work.

He claimed that bus stops and car parking were “side issues for Donegal town”. 

Mayor of Donegal Town Padraig Kennedy added his weight to the debate by saying that after five weeks of operations, “it is obviously not working”.

“It is causing a backlog on every road, roads that never had traffic and even access to the art is now being hindered and restricted in the way they have the entrance to the mart”.  

He added that there should be only two roads in Donegal town that should be considered for a one way system, Meeting House Street down by the Forge Bar and Castle Street up along the river.

There was a possibility of a one way system around the town’s main car park, coming out at the Pier “but you would need to develop down at the pier entrance before you do that”.   

He added that before anything else “put in concrete” proceedings needed to be stopped, “meet with the people and take a look at it”.  

He said a case in point was the Tullyearl junction coming into Donegal town from the Ballintra side, which was only ever envisaged to be a junction at the outset, but that was later changed to a roundabout. 

“They got it wrong, but then they got it sorted”.

It was his belief that a one way system around Donegal Town would not benefit anyone in any way, shape or form.” 

There were people who lived in Donegal Town all their lives and now “did not know where they were going”.