"The perception in some rural areas is that 80kph is a target. It’s not," says Kilkenny councillor

Falling garda numbers in County Kilkenny, in the light of road safety and speeding concerns, is a ‘disgrace’ say local councillors.

Discussing the recent review of speed limits on Kilkenny roads, Callan Thomastown councillors called for increased funding for road safety schemes and ramps, as more effective measures to reduce speeding.

There was also a call for more garda enforcement of existing speed limits.
Councillors were discussing proposed speed limit reductions in the district.

Cllr Deirdre Cullen said the irony is that speed limits are to be changed on a national level now. However, she said it is her view that instead of changing the speed limits more money should be put into road safety schemes.

11,000km OF ROADS
There are 11,000km of roads in the Callan Thomastown municipal district, Cllr Cullen said, and the current budget is a ‘drop in the ocean’ for what’s needed. The district can do ‘one good scheme’ a year on its budget.

Cllr Cullen gave the example of a safety scheme at Killarney Bridge where speeding wasn’t an issue but the safety works have led to improvements for drivers.
She said the councillors should be ‘shouting’ for more funding.

Area engineer Declan Murphy said the safety schemes do change driver behaviour, speed limits slow and then the council can introduce a new speed limit. That’s why they need traffic calming measures, he added.

Cllr Patrick O’Neill said the process had been ‘painfully slow’ but welcomed the changes, particularly in Bennettsbridge and Burnchurch. He said he hoped it will allow other safety works to be carried out.
“There’s no silver bullet for speed, unfortunately, but this does allow us, as councillors, and the engineering team to look at the area in more detail and go to the Department to fund low cost safety schemes.”

Speed changes on the Callan bypass were not allowed by TII in this review, however, Mr Murphy pointed out that a scheme to improve safety on the bypass has now gone through the design process.
Paths will be widened and the carriageway narrowed. When that is in place they can bring down the speed limit to 80kph, he said.
TII still thinks the 100kph speed limit is OK for Danesfort, he added.

Cllr Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere said he was delighted to welcome the changes. He said he agreed totally that traffic calming and speed limits go hand-in-hand.
“The other thing here is the personal responsibility of drivers and enforcement,” he said. “It’s brilliant for the local authority to come up with designs, but if there is no enforcement it’s a nightmare.”

Cllr Cleere said he would like to see the data from roads where the council has installed a safety scheme to see how often gardaí are at those spots, monitoring drivers.
“The perception in some places in rural areas is that 80kph is a target. It’s not.” He said the condition of some rural roads meant the speed limit should to 30 or 40 kph.

“80kph is not a target. It’s really important that message gets out there. 11,000km is an awful lot of road and a lot of that is one car wide.”
He said the consequences of speed related incidents can be devastating to a community.

Cllr Cleere said enforcement was important and gardaí should be given enough resources to do that.
He suggested the council mount a local campaign for drivers to reduce their speed. “As a local authority we need to be proactive,” he said.

Cllr Cullen told the meeting that at the Joint Policing Committee (JPC), earlier in the week, they were told ‘the biggest issue we have in this municipal district is that resources are thin on othe ground’. She said upcoming changes in garda rostering will spread those resources even thinner. Kilkenny has recently lost 10 gardaí and been allocated one.
“Clearly there is not enough manpower to do the checkpoints needed and it’s leading to danger on our roads,” Cllr Cullen said.

She proposed the district councillors write to the JPC asking for input to the next district meeting.
“It’s important for our Oireachtas members to drive this too,” Cllr Cleere said. More people need to be attracted into the gardaí, he added. Cllr Cleere said it was a ‘disgrace’ the county had recently lost nine gardaí and the county’s national representatives should be held accountable.
“No price should be put on safety,” he said, adding that a garda presence is important.

Cllr Joe Lyons said he ‘agreed 100%’ with Cllr Cleere.

“The reality is just because we lower speed limits it’s not going to change one thing. Policing of our roads is the issue. You can lower the speed limit to whatever you want but people need to take responsibility and if they don’t do that a penalty needs to be paid and that means policing which is not there at the moment. It’s extremely disappointing,” Cllr Micheal Doyle said.

He suggested there should be a speed limit entering and exiting every town and village in the district, with a garda prosecuting, or a ramp. They are the only thing that will slow traffic, Cllr Doyle said. He acknowledged there would be a huge cost for that many speed ramps, but ‘it will save lives’.

Area engineer Declan Murphy said a few years ago they had put in for low cost safety scheme funding for driver feedback signs and they could try the same application to fund ramps.
Cllr Cullen said it came back to what she said at the beginning of the discussion — they need money. Ramps are a very effective way to slow down.
Cllr Cullen said all TDs in Kilkenny need to be shouting a bit louder at national level for more money.

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SPEED
Cllr O’Neill recalled that canvassing for the last local elections ‘everywhere you went it was speed, speed speed’ brought up as a concern, and he knew it would be the same in the next election. “We have done well in some areas but we are never going to get everywhere with the budget we have.”
Ramps are a good starting point, he said, even if they are raised pedestrian crossings.
Cllr Cleere pointed out the recent announcement that Kilkenny County Council is to get an additional €1.5million funding.

“Can I suggest we make a submission that 10% of that be allocated to what we are talking about here today. €150,000 to start that project would be a good start. If we want action we need money.”
Cllr Doyle said the new national speed limit will not be heeded, so the money that will be spent changing signs should be spent on ‘engineering’ measures instead.