Donegal learners failing driving tests due to poor road lining in the county

Donegal driving instructors have raised concerns about students failing their driving tests due to poor road lining.

That is according to Cllr Noel Jordan of Donegal municipal district, who brought a motion to the Donegal County Council plenary meeting yesterday. 

Cllr Jordan asked the Roads Directorate “to conduct a report on purchasing a road lining machine against the hiring of this vehicle.”

“It’s about the lack of road lining and the timeframe to get roads lined,” said Cllr Jordan, who is the current chair of the Roads and Transportation SPC. “I’m conscious of the fact that we need to get value for money. I understand it’s a specialised piece of equipment and you need a team trained.

“I think we need it for the simple fact that it has been raised at multiple municipal districts. You have driving instructors contacting municipal districts saying that it’s causing some of their clients to fail their driving tests, because of poor lining at junctions. They’re not properly lined and haven’t been for a number of years.

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“My understanding is there’s two contractors servicing the whole north-west of the country and when you want roads lined you’re waiting a huge length of time. Particularly, I’m looking at secondary roads and junctions. I’ve seen myself raising it at the municipal district and waiting maybe a year and a half to get these lined. 

“It’s all put down to how busy the private contractors are, and when you want them, you just can’t get them.

“I would ask the roads director to look at this carefully and come up with a report and see are we getting value for money by renting or leasing these in, or can we do this job ourselves.”

Cllr Albert Doherty seconded the motion.

“This matter has been coming up at our municipals, and it did come up in our municipal in Inishowen,” said Cllr Albert Doherty. “I think we have to consider the safety role we have to play.

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“I would hope that we could prioritise a response. An effective continuous white line and junctions, the appeal for traffic to go slower, all of these issues are mentioned by many locals as they see the lining system having faded, yellow boxes as well.”

Bryan Cannon, Director of Roads and Transportation at the Council, responded: “We have had quite a bit of discussion on this topic and I agree that it would be very beneficial for members to see the detail in the report examining this option because it has come to the fore a number of times in this chamber and other chambers. 

“The Roads Directorate will undertake that report and will share it initially among the Roads and Transportation SPC and the machinery yard working group and it can be shared with other members then once it gets a chance to be shared among those two groupings.”