CYCLE LANES STILL A BIG TALKING POINT FOR COUNCILLORS
IS there any hope that Louth County Council will put the St Mary’s Road cycle lanes on the ‘very wide’ footpath instead of having them taking up parking spaces? That was the suggestion put forward, once again, at the latest Dundalk meeting by Cllr. John McGahon, who also highlighted other issues on the street.
Cllr. McGahon said he had been speaking to a resident of the street before last Tuesday’s meeting. ‘She told me that she is an enthusiastic supporter of cycle lanes and she can’t understand why there is no cycle lane on the footpath which is very wide.
‘You have taken away 40 car parking spaces and residents on the road are nearly fighting with each other for parking spaces.
‘So why can’t we have the cycle lane on the the incredibly wide footpath?
‘In addition, we were told last year that school buses would go into the school, make the drop off or collections and go out the gates. Last week, there were two to four buses that were not doing this. And what are Louth County Council doing about the Marist traffic management plan?’
Dundalk chairman Mark Dearey said he recalled the idea of ‘ half footpath, half cycle lane’ had been mooted before and said the officials had undertaken to look at it.
Senior engineer Pat Finn said the council will get in touch with the school authorities about traffic management and see if there are any issues with non compliance.
On the cycle lane on the footpath issue, Mr Finn said: ‘I don’t have an answer to that at the moment. I will get the points out again and will look at this issue again’.
He said the council will also look at connectivity issues relating to the cycle lanes and would have an update ‘in a couple of months’ time’.
Cllr. McGahon asked chairman Cllr. Mark Dearey that now he had raised ‘a very specific query’, how would it be included on the agenda for next month’s meeting. Mr Finn said he would be able to provide a short, written report for then.