Road to ‘huge success story’ branded not fit for purpose
A ROAD to a popular tourist attraction described as a “huge success story” has been branded “not fit for purpose”.
A meeting of Sligo County Council heard that a walk at the base of the prow of Benbulben has become so popular that both the car park at it and the road up to it are not able to cope with the numbers of people going there.
The issue, which has been raised previously, was brought up again by Cllr Thomas Healy.
He had a motion on the agenda calling on the council to “address the ongoing concerns for locals and tourists regarding the main access road to Benbulben Forest Walk as this road surface has seriously deteriorated since last year”. He said that this was an “ongoing issue”. “There is a narrow road to the car park, cars are being parked everywhere and there is water flowing down the road. Cars are blocking access for farmers and blocking people’s gates,” he said.
Cllr Healy said that the council “needs to step up to the mark on this”. “This is of benefit to Sligo and to everyone coming to use to walk,” he said.
The Sinn Féin councillor said that Coillte was agreeable to working in conjunction with the council to extend the car park but they would not be going ahead with it unless the road was done first.
A report from senior engineer Tom Brennan stated that this road was not included in the 2019-2021 multi annual restoration improvement programme. However, if additional funds became available
then it would be included for consideration.
Cllr Donal Gilroy said that the road was “not fit for purpose” and he said that when people were coming back down the road there was a ‘stop’ sign which regularly could not be seen. “It is an accident waiting to happen if we don’t do something about. There are huge numbers of tourists using this road. This is a huge success story,” he said.
Cllr Marie Casserly said that it was great that this walk was so successful. But she said that it was private land on both sides of the road and she wasn’t sure how much more it could be widened.
Acting chief executive Tom Kilfeather said: “Nobody doubts that the road needs to be upgraded but we cannot identify a funding source for it.” He said that hard decisions might have to be made in terms of taking money from somewhere else on the road works programme. “Everybody accepts that it has to be done but it has to be paid for,” he said.
Cllr Healy said that the farmers there were willing to work with the council in relation to widening the road.
He suggested they write to the minister telling her that they cannot find funding for this road and “maybe she might be able to enlighten us”.
Cllr Gilroy asked if a costing of the work needed could be done. Mr Kilfeather said he would arrange for a rough costing to be done.
He said there was one done before and while he couldn’t remember the cost he knew it was “substantial”.