New calls have been made to the Letterkenny Roads team to install lights at a busy crossing at Lower Main Street.
The crossing to Kernan’s Spar at the bottom of the Convent Road has been the scene of accidents and near-misses in the past.
Cllr Kevin Bradley urged the council to place pedestrian crossing lights at the busy junction. However, he was angered to learn that the measures were not possible at the moment. He was that lights would impact traffic at the Lower Main Street and Oldtown Bridge.
A similar call was made by Cllr Donal ‘Mandy’ Kelly in 2020, when he was told that a signalised crossing at this junction would be “problematic at peak traffic volume” due to the close proximity of the Back Road and the Mini Roundabouts.
Cllr Bradley, speaking at the Letterkenny-Milford MD meeting on Tuesday, said the issue is being kicked down the road.
He also called for bollards to be removed from the front of Kernan’s Spar to allow for set-down parking.
Kernans Spar at Lower Main Street
Cllr Bradley said the local business owner has expressed frustration over the lack of safe pedestrian access to their premises.
“Are we going to leave it until somebody gets knocked down, or are we going to get the bollards removed and get parking and lights done?,” he asked.
Cllr Kelly added that the pedestrian crossing is the busiest in the whole of Letterkenny, and is a “recipe for disaster”.
“There was a local person knocked down there and sadly never survived it, and it’s only a matter of time before something like this happens again and I hope I’m wrong,” Cllr Kelly said.
“There is a simple solution that can be implemented here and resolve the whole thing – put a zebra crossing on it.”
In response, the Roads and Transportation department of Letterkenny MD agreed to seek further solutions through the NTA Active Travel process.
