‘No plans’ to reverse controversial speed limit hike in Ballylickey

PROTESTS to the transport authority about a speed limit increase in Ballylickey – and calls to have it reversed – have been rebuffed.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) acknowledged a letter sent by the Council last July, appealing TII’s decision to increase the speed limit from 60kph to 80kph for a short section of the N71 between Ouvane Falls and Cronin’s Service Station, and asking for the speed limit to be reduced back to 60kph. 

At the recent meeting, municipal district officer Jacqueline Mansfield read TII’s reply in which it said it has ‘no plans’ to revisit the speed limit review process in the near future, but ‘Cork County Council may wish to keep the area under review and assess it again in due course’.

It wasn’t just public representatives who were angered by the speed limit increase: local residents voiced their objections too, following a number of bad accidents over the summer months.

‘People need to know that we, the Council members, don’t have the final say. It is someone sitting in an office looking at Google maps,’ Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) stated at the time.

‘You’d need a co-driver on that road telling you the pace notes – up 80, down 60, left over bend, up 100 – to navigate the new speed limits,’ he said.

Cllr Collins said locals and public representatives are trying to make West Cork roads safer and the councillors unanimously called on TII representatives to attend one of their meetings.

What they got in reply was a letter saying the limit would remain unchanged. That prompted Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy (FF) to complain about ‘the most confusing layout of speed limits I have ever seen’.