Cllr Jennifer Whitmore calls for a transport plan
Cllr Jennifer Whitmore has called for Wicklow County Council to develop a transport plan for the Greystones Municipal District.
Speaking at last week’s meeting, she said that a ‘real-life’ representation of the traffic and public transport patterns for residents is urgently required to enable the sustainable development of the area, and to ensure that whatever new housing is being built is met with sufficient transport infrastructure.
‘For years now, residents in the Greystones District have had to suffer from public transport and road infrastructure that cannot meet the demand placed on it by residents commuting on a daily basis,’ she said.
‘I have raised this issue repeatedly with the National Transport Authority (NTA), Dublin Bus, Bus Eireann and Irish Rail. The response has always been the same - that there has been a lack of Government investment in public transport but that investment is planned for the future. However, this funding never seems to materialise, despite the many promises over the years.
‘In fact, in the last couple of weeks, the NTA has admitted that even if an order for new carriages was placed today, it would be at least four years before they were available to be used because of manufacturing lead-in times. The much-heralded BusConnects proposal won’t be finished until 2023, assuming it all goes according to schedule. And there are still no firm plans or funding available for the significant upgrade to the N11 that has been talked about now for years. So, in a best-case scenario, we are looking at four or five years before we will start seeing any transport improvements.
‘In the meantime, significant housing development is happening in the district, and in areas like Newtownmountkennedy and Wicklow Town, bringing more and more new residents and commuters into the area. Whilst new homes are welcome, they must be matched with the required corresponding infrastructure. A recent submission from Cairns for over 400 hundred units in Farrenkelly talked about how the development was close to the N11, a Dublin Bus service and the Dart. However, everyone that uses public transport or the N11 knows that these services are full to capacity and that they could not take any additional demand.’
Members of the district council supported Cllr Whitmore’s proposal.