Residents furious at increased speed limit in Ballylickey

RESIDENTS in Ballylickey say they are livid that the speed limits on the roads approaching Ballylickey Bridge have been increased from 60k to 80k, within days of a very bad accident.

Before going to press, an older gentleman was still in hospital, following a collision that occurred there on the afternoon of Wednesday June 28th.

Cllrs Danny Collins (Ind) and Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy (FF) raised the issue at a West Cork Municipal District meeting, just days after the new speed signs were erected.

Both councillors had previously sent a recommendation – requesting a 60kph limit on the roadway before Manning’s Emporium out as far as Cronin’s forecourt and the Eagle Point camping park – to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).

In the meantime, Cllr Collins said the countywide speed limit recommendations went through at a full meeting of Cork County Council three weeks ago.

At that meeting, Cllr Collins said he requested that the members vote on the various recommendations to TII, but the vote wasn’t sanctioned, and the TII proposals went through en bloc.

He pointed out that the decision for setting, or changing, speed limits on a national road is a matter for TII, but everyone in the Ballylickey area was furious when the new speed limit signs were erected last Friday.

‘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,’ said Cllr Collins.

‘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.

‘We are trying to make our roads safe. Does TII not realise there were two accidents at Ballylickey bridge in the last week alone?’

The Independent TD has called on representatives of TII to attend a meeting of the Council to account for their actions.