Concern over safety in Laois village 

RESIDENTS of a Laois village are appealing for action over dangerous speeding and lack of public lighting on a busy approach road.

Videos have been shared regularly of cars roaring into Ballyroan at over 100kph, according to a local councillor.

Meanwhile, there is only street light on a dark 200-metre stretch of road on the R425 leading from the village, between the service station and the soccer club.

Concern about safety risks was raised at the January meeting of Portlaoise Municipal District, when Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley asked for public lighting to be installed along the R425 route.

The Independent councillor said she was contacted by many residents regarding the lack of street lights on the busy road.

She said: “Anyone who is familiar with Ballyroan knows that, from the service station right out to the soccer club and beyond the community centre, there is not one public light on that road.” 

She added that, while she was willing to use some of her discretionary funding to provide lighting, the road would require five or six street lights which would not be covered by discretionary funding. She felt a project should be put in place to light up the entire stretch of road.

Council engineer Conor Delaney replied that a GPS survey would be carried out initially, in order to prepare a lighting design. Projected costings for the proposed public lights would then be sought.

Cllr Dwane Stanley also highlighted speeding problems on the road, saying that cars often did in excess of 100kph.

She said: “There’s a footpath there. It's a wide road and there are also issues there with speeding, right from the pedestrian crossing out. Once there is a footpath going out, there should be public lighting.

“I would also ask that you consider traffic calming measures and put something in place to slow down the traffic. You take your life in your hands on that road at the moment.” 

She was supported by Ballyroan councillor Barry Walsh, who pointed out that he had previously requested public lighting on the route. He said that while “significant work” from the school to the GAA pitch was carried out under an Active Travel grant two years ago, such funding was no longer available for rural areas.

Cllr Walsh said: “Active Travel at that time was allowing for rural areas but that has changed. It is now only applicable to urban areas. I was hoping to try to get that route and several more seen to. Hopefully, the new government will change this issue.” 

 Cllr Walsh explained that the narrowness of the footpath on the R425 meant there was nowhere to put street lights without obstructing the path.

He said: “The path is quite tight there and there is nowhere to put lights because of an underground cable, meaning the paths would have to come up.” 

Cllr Walsh said there was one street light on the opposite side of the road, which he had installed under his own discretionary funding. He said: “It took me a long time to get that up there, so if anyone wants to help on this issue it would be appreciated, as my discretionary funding would not be enough.” 

The Fine Gael councillor recalled that he previously requested a traffic survey, together with a lighting survey, which showed “significant speeds” on the way into the village. He regularly received videos that showed cars going at over 100kph.

Cllr Walsh said that, while there were different obstacles and costs involved in resolving the problem, he hoped there was a provision whereby rural villages could be included in the Active Travel scheme, to cover the funding required for safety measures.

He added that any plan for traffic calming should involve consultation and agreement with the whole community, as some people were not in favour of speed ramps and wanted to put forward other suggestions.