A Donegal county councillor has slammed the “absolute glut” of signage which has been erected on The N56 road.
One of the “absolute glut” of road signs in Donegal.
Cllr Seamus O Domhnaill said there are no less than 119 signs between Creeslough and Dunfanaghy.
He says Donegal County Council must now take stock of the signs and reduce them if necessary.
The signs include speed signs, directional signage and general distance signage but there are also now tourism related signage including Wild Atlantic Way signs as well as road number signage.
Speaking earlier today Cllr.Ó Domhnaill said he very much welcomed the Wild Atlantic Way Initiative and the Tourism numbers which this will generate.
But he stated “It does leave us in a situation whereby between Creeslough and Dunfanaghy there is approximately 119 posts carrying various signs erected by Donegal County Council or the NRA.
“This amount of signage in my opinion is absolutely ludicrous and I firmly believe that with a little bit of foresight this number could be greatly reduced”.
He added that this comes at a time when the Council are expending large amounts of money putting services such as electricity and telecoms underground yet they are erecting multiple amount of poles for signage throughout the County.
Ó Domhnaill further commented that “I fully understand that there is a need for information signage. But when we see that the NRA and Board faílte carried out a review and erected new signage last year and we see a further €400,000 spent on Wild Atlantic Way signage this year, which leaves in a situation that between the villages of Gortahork & Dunfanaghy there are in excess of 130 signs erected by the State.
“Surely this number could be reduced with a bit of joined up thinking”. Along with these signs there are of course private signage for businesses as well as contour corner signage which is also erected by the Council. Because of the sheer volume of signage on our county’s roads there is no doubt but that they are causing distraction and confusion to motorists using our roads.”
In concluding Ó Domhnaill called on Donegal County Council to carry out an inventory of all the signage erectd by the Council and NRA on the Counties National Primary and Secondary roads with a view of reducing the number of signs whilst still delivering the message which is intended.
“I find it strange that the Wild Atlantic Way signage wasn’t incorporated within existing signage in an attempt to promote safety and of course save tax payers money.
“I wil be raising this matter at our next Council meeting to ensure that a proper process is put in place before the County is totally over run with Council signs.”
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