A PENSIONER living on Innishannon’s main street has told of having to endure as many as 1,200 heavy goods vehicles rumbling past his house in one day.

Gavin Falk (85), who has been living at historic Westropp House with his wife Kathleen for the past 45 years, told The Southern Star that the volume of traffic is ‘relentless’ and choking the village, as well as making their lives and the lives of their neighbours who live on the main street miserable.

‘I counted 1,200 HGVs one recent day and that’s not even counting other vehicles like vans, cars and tractors. I did the count all in one go,’ said Gavin.

Even as we spoke at his home, up to 20 HGVs passed by the window of the front room of the listed Georgian building in the space of just a few short minutes.

‘It’s definitely getting worse at night too,’ said Gavin. ‘And I definitely think they are going faster as it’s such a wide street. Sometimes the volume shakes the house.’

It’s been almost five years since a one-week traffic speed and volume survey at three locations in the village was carried out by the Innishannon Traffic Action Group (ITAG) in association with the Irish Traffic Surveys Limited.

The results made for startling reading showing that more than 110,000 vehicles passed through the village during that period, while 16,000 vehicles pass through the village every day and that figure has more than likely increased since.

‘Speeding is an issue too and the worst part of the day is usually between 6.30pm and 7.30pm,’ said Gavin. ‘We definitely need speed humps to slow down these motorists at either end of the village. We have heavy traffic usually heading in the Cork direction in the morning and then we have tailbacks as you come into the village from the Cork side in the evening.’

Ironically, Gavin was part of a small delegation from Innishannon which went to Cork County Hall almost 40 years ago to seek a bypass for the village.

He has welcomed the recent announcement of €100,000 in funding for a projected outline document which is being prepared for the proposed Innishannon Bypass and will be submitted to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) for review.

‘But any move on a by-pass could take another 40 years before it could happen,’ he cautioned. ‘There should have been a plan made even back then to progress it which could have involved buying land to facilitate the village bypass. We should have had this by-pass years ago.’

Having been brought up in North London, Gavin is well used to traffic, but he said the situation in Innishannon has become more problematic in recent years.

‘We’re just a small village, we are not a speed track or a motorway and it’s certainly got worse,’ he said.