Councillors want to abandon all Crossmolina bypass options

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Reading in the Westren People how Cllrs Seamus Weir and Michael Loftus want to abandon all possable options for a bypass of Crossmolina.

The issue is that councillors won't pick one of three routes in the study area so officials have to be mindful that any route could be choose, so planning permission is restricted in all three areas.

I can't help but agree with the council officalls that not keeping one route would be bad planning.

It seems a bit unreal to keep national and regional traffic -- including large trucks -- in a small town just because some local interests fear for loss of business. But worse still, it's also allowing these short-term fears to affect long-term planning.

Tishball

Ballina road to Crossmolina is a night mare, and the town of Crossmolina is a nightmare for trucks. However with all the routes that need doing I think the foxford bypass needs doing next, and to really win my vote can we bypass Roscommon altogether, it would make a trip to Dublin a lot more fun.

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Tishball wrote: »

Ballina road to Crossmolina is a night mare, and the town of Crossmolina is a nightmare for trucks. However with all the routes that need doing I think the foxford bypass needs doing next, and to really win my vote can we bypass Roscommon altogether, it would make a trip to Dublin a lot more fun.

A Foxford bypass, and the overall route between Ballina and the N5, should be way ahead doing Crossmolina. But the council needs to plan ahead and select a route for the Crossmolina to Ballina route, including a Crossmolina bypass.

HarryPotter41

An alternative suggestion has been made on purchasing and knocking the now empty buildings causing the blockage of the town rather than bypass the town completely. There are many more towns I would want to see bypassed around the country before Crossmolina. The Crossmolina Ballina road is a nightmare most of the time because no matter how much work is done on it and how well its resurfaced the water scheme digs it up week after week in different areas and eventually destroys the road, its currently in a dreadful state with the works being done on it.

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HarryPotter41 wrote: »

An alternative suggestion has been made on purchasing and knocking the now empty buildings causing the blockage of the town rather than bypass the town completely.

That's really not a viable long-term alternative.

Residents of towns should not be exposed to the high level through traffic, including large trucks traveling mid to long distances, and truck drivers and others traveling more than short distances should not be forced to go through towns.

HarryPotter41 wrote: »

There are many more towns I would want to see bypassed around the country before Crossmolina. The Crossmolina Ballina road is a nightmare most of the time because no matter how much work is done on it and how well its resurfaced the water scheme digs it up week after week in different areas and eventually destroys the road, its currently in a dreadful state with the works being done on it.

Indeed there are towns which could be bypassed first, but that's not what this is about.

It's about the inability to select a route and keep that route clear of development because at least some councillors can't see the very clear long-term value.

HarryPotter41

monument wrote: »

That's really not a viable long-term alternative.

Residents of towns should not be exposed to the high level through traffic, including large trucks traveling mid to long distances, and truck drivers and others traveling more than short distances should not be forced to go through towns.

There are not many residents of Crossmolina who have an issue with the traffic going through the town. The issue is the jams caused by the bottleneck at the Erris Street/Church Street junction which blocks the whole town, the traffic jams are what causes the frustration. Most residents don't want to lose through traffic as Crossmolina is a town already dying on its feet and needs to hold on to through business in as practicable a manner as possible. Its not a town that takes very long to drive through if there are no obstacles which the current bottleneck causes

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HarryPotter41 wrote: »

There are not many residents of Crossmolina who have an issue with the traffic going through the town. The issue is the jams caused by the bottleneck at the Erris Street/Church Street junction which blocks the whole town, the traffic jams are what causes the frustration. Most residents don't want to lose through traffic as Crossmolina is a town already dying on its feet and needs to hold on to through business in as practicable a manner as possible. Its not a town that takes very long to drive through if there are no obstacles which the current bottleneck causes

Creating an attractive town core which is safe town for children and others and attractive for tourism and living in should not be hindered because of scaremongering about passing trade.

The passing trade talk is repeated over and over but rarely if ever comes to pass. The same scaremongering was going on about Longford before it was bypassed, yet every time I've been in Longford since it was bypassed the only diffrence is a little less traffic -- it was still difficult to get parking and busy in shops and cafes.

But before the bypass there was the usual scaremongering -- http://www.shannonside.ie/news/fears-for-trade-in-longford-town-over-n5-bypass/

Crossmolina's issue is much like many town's and village's issue -- there's loads of scaremongering and a lack of vision. Small towns like Crossmolina and large villages like Killala should be looking to grow, attract people away from one-off housing in the middle of nowhere with no services or shops nearby, support current business and new types of businesses and attract visitors in.

Towns centres need to make themselves destinations which are attractive to visit and shop in and business is already coming from mainly from near-by residents and the goal should be to grow that base. Otherwise bypass or no bypass you're already on the road to death of the town -- not having a bypass won't help and could make things worse.

In any case, for Crossmolina and trucks the issue extends further than that. Any time I've been in the town lately the issue starts with the parked cars on both sides of the road on the bridge and sometimes the issue starts with poor parking up as far as the Esso filling station on Ballina Street.

Padraigodee

Crossmolina has no real need for a by pass now, it might have made sense 25 years ago when there were weddings in the Dolphin and cars were parked everywhere.The council had no interest those days.
Different story now though. The council seem hell bent on pushing this through. I would suggest two reasons.
The first is pressure from Shell who would be much happier to see trucks not having to go through Crossmolina and have been for some time exerting not inconsiderable pressure on the council behind the scenes.
The second is the council itself since an incident a number of years ago when there was an attempt to move the statue of the Blessed Virgin in the middle of the town. That attempt failed and it seems to me that in what looked like a fit of pique by the council plans were immediately drawn up for a by pass.It was almost as if having been thwarted in their statue moving efforts the council planners and engineers were determined to get their own back. Too petty I hear you say?. Never too petty for some people on mayo co Council with impressive titles and more impressive salaries.
I reserve judgement on whether Crossmolina needs a by pass or not or whether it would be a good or bad thing for the town.What I do say is that I would be happier for sucha decision be made by local democratically ellected politicians than faceless apparatchiks who think they have the right to decide what is best for all.

Tishball

I think the councils delay on bypassing the town is the effort of building another bridge because the river would have to be crossed at some point, . For the moment if they just got the traffic warden to slap tickets on stupid parking it might make it easier for said trucks to pass through the town. It is unbelievable that people still park at hicksons and hineys, let alone on both sides of the bridge. I have driven trucks across that bridge and both turning for Ballycastle and for Erris was a nightmare.