‘Culture of speeding' to blame in Belgooly

By Kieran O’Mahony

A COUNCIL executive engineer is blaming the culture of speeding and the lack of garda enforcement as the prime reason Belgooly residents are fearful of traffic.

Belgooly resident and engineer Brendan Fehily was responding to calls from councillors at a recent meeting of Bandon Kinsale Municipal District for more action to be taken by Cork County Council on the ongoing problem in the village, where locals have complained about speeding cars.

A survey carried out by the Council at the end of last year revealed that 64% of motorists driving through the village broke the speed limit of 50 km/h.

‘We have done a huge amount of work to make the village safer and have modified the junction and upgraded the lighting and a push button light won’t solve the speeding problem at the pedestrian crossing. Speeding is a problem that is gotten rid of by enforcement and the gardaí were even down there this morning,’ said Mr Fehily, who  lives in the village.

‘Speeding is a culture and there’s no enforcement. You can have all the laws in the land and it still won’t solve the problem. People who speed through the village do it every day, back and forth, on their commute. It’s not a crossing problem, it’s a speeding problem and we have asked the gardaí to put up cameras.’

Cllr Aidan Lombard (FG) said he accepted that fact, but he said it was his understanding that Cork County Council had already said they would look into doing something.

‘I think we should explore some cost-effective way of doing something, and we need some kind of traffic calming there,’ said Cllr Lombard. 

Cllr Rachel McCarthy (SF) said the request for a push button is to make it safer to cross the road at the junction and said that residents are constantly onto them about the problem. 

But senior executive engineer Charlie McCarthy said a push button light was not necessarily the safest.

‘90% of the people speeding through Belgooly know what they’re at, and markings won’t work for commuter traffic who use it daily,’ said Mr McCarthy.

Cllr Kevin Murphy (FG) suggested the installation of an advanced flashing light, 40 yards before the crossing, might work.

‘I went out there last Saturday and saw idiots driving too fast there. The roads are immaculate and in fact maybe they’re too good. Can we ask for a speed van to be put there to get this elephant off our back,’ said Cllr Murphy.

Recently, mother-of-three Susan O’Connell told The Southern Star about a close escape she and her children had when a speeding truck nearly knocked down her son at the pedestrian crossing in the village.