Serious crashes along busy Cork route happening 'at alarming rate' as road safety measures delayed
Pedestrian And And Holding Protest Outside Eddie Kilcully City Traffic Ballincrokig Hall Association In A Residents To On Campaign For Calming The Monday Picture: Works Improvement Measures Area O'hare
Crashes along a busy route on Cork's northside are happening "at an alarming rate" years after promises were made in the wake of a fatal accident to make it safer.
A petition demanding road safety measures around Kilcully has been presented to Lord Mayor, Cllr Kieran McCarthy.
The online petition was set up by Kilcully resident Charlie Clarke to implement road safety measures promised after a fatal road traffic collision in 2020. Further “serious crashes continue to occur at an alarming rate", it claims.
“This is not just about Kilcully and Ballincrokig. Dublin Hill, Whitechurch Road, Carrignavar Road and Ballinahina Road are also affected.
"Our roads lack adequate lighting, footpaths and pedestrian crossings, making it extremely dangerous for pedestrians,” Mr Clarke said.
Chair of the Kilcully and Ballincrokig Residents' Association and fellow Kilcully resident Joan Lewis said people in the area were on edge. Ms Lewis said local residents were “fuming” and feel neglected by the city council.
“What has made people very cross is that we were promised by Cork City Council that we would get footpaths and traffic-calming measures this year, but that has been pushed back until next year. And that is the way it has been since 2020,” she added.
According to Ms Lewis, a "ring-fenced budget" set aside to implement road safety measures in the area has "disappeared".
Some €1.2m was set aside for the Kilcully and Upper Glanmire Pedestrian Improvement Scheme. The Upper Glanmire scheme is being treated as phase one and Kilcully as phase two.
The Upper Glanmire scheme is currently under way, which has caused “additional sense of grievance”, according to Green Party councillor Oliver Moran.
“There are other schemes in the city that are phase one and phase two of each other, where they naturally lead on from each other. In the case of Kilcully and Upper Glamire, the two schemes don't join, they're not planned to, and they're 4km apart."
Cork City Council said the "proposed Kilcully pedestrian improvements will take longer to deliver due to the need for land acquisition, project funding and completion of detailed design and environmental surveys".
Subject to continued funding, it is expected design and land acquisition will be progressed in 2025, director of services for infrastructure development Gerry O’Beirne said.