Minister to visit parish to see traffic and transport issues

MINISTER of State at the Department of Transport Jack Chambers is to personally pay a visit to the parish to see for himself the pressing traffic and transport issues raised with him by local Fianna Fáil election candidate Shane McGuinness.

A date early next month (April) is to be confirmed for Mr Chambers to come and view exactly the situation on the ground regarding the problems and concerns that were brought to his attention.

Mr Chambers granted Mr McGuinness a face-to-face meeting in Dublin last week lasting nearly an hour during which the local election runner in the forthcoming contest for the Dundalk South constituency expounded a range of problems besetting the Blackrock and Haggardstown area, but three in particular.

Mr McGuinness highlighted the urgency for action to deal with the danger posed by the heavy traffic on the former Dublin Road and specifically concerning school traffic along the stretch from the Greengates to McGeough’s Cross, with some 200 young children travelling daily from Haggardstown to attend school, mainly at St Francis’s School but not exclusively.

Some 20 odd families are believed to have no choice but for their children to cross the dangerous Dublin Road on foot to get to school and back.

Mr McGuinness also pressed the Cabinet minister how equally imperative it was to complete the section of the western inner relief road from the Marlbog Road to WuXi to alleviate the danger and avert heavy goods vehicles using the narrow roads in Haggardstown and crossing the small railway bridge near Haggardsotwn Garden Centre which was never built to carry the volume and weight of such traffic.

Mr McGuiness told Mr Chambers that an estimated 200 heavy goods vehicles are taking a route along the Marlbog Road and passing St Fursey’s School to and from the local industrial area. This is a short cut drivers are taking linking the Dundalk inner relief making their way from and onto the Dublin/Belfast motorway.

This is because the original plan to run the local western relief road from Clermont to Wuxi was not completed, and only constructed between Clermont and the Marlbog Road.

According to Mr McGuinness the Minister was baffled that the full stretch of the relief road was not built. It is Mr McGuinness’s information it is not planned by at Louth County Council to complete the roadway.

The other pressing matters that his local party representative asked the Minister to intervene in is to have the footpath and upgrading of the Rock Road finished.

The work stopped despite the local Tidy Towns obtaining a grant of €100,000 from the town and village scheme to fund the cost of the penultimate stage between Elm Park and Rock Road East.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Tidy Towns group and most residents of the village when Louth County Council announced that the work which was expected to start in 2022 would not be proceed.

The reasons advanced for abandoning the stretch of the scheme, after two years’ work had gone into it, didn’t have a convincing ring, with the council attributing the decision to outstanding land owner permissions and inability to complete the work in the timeframe set out.

The road is very busy and used by a lot of pedestrians and in its present condition parents are very reticent or simply won’t allow their children to walk to school, contrary to what the Government is trying to encourage for the good of youngsters and also the environment.

Mr McGuinness commented “I was very pleased to meet him and for the Minister to afford me the time to discuss the very pressing issue.s in the local community. I’m even more pleased that he has agreed to come down and have a look and see the situation at first hand.”

WORK is to start on the new Haggardstown heritage trail within weeks. This is certainly a remarkable quick time scale for the plan by the local Tidy Towns to begin to materialise, with the project projected to be far advanced by the end of the year and competed next year.

This rapid fruition of a scheme that was announced before Christmas is due to the decision of Louth County Council to commit €9,000 to the trail, which is envisaged to be a major boom to tourism in the area, and will cost a total of €25,000 to complete.

The announcement of the council’s decision was made by chairman Shane McGuinness of the Tidy Towns group, who expressed delight that the Haggardstown area is to get such an important amenity. He sees it as recognition by the council of the needs of a rapidly growing community that will require a commercial and civil centre.

Mr McGuinness said an official launch of the project will take place on April 18 next in Sexton’s Road House when a visual and oral presentation will be made of what is entailed.

The scheme involves the intertwining of the history and archaeology of the area, with 12 stations to be set up across the area. At each station there will be a stand erected containing a short history of the relevant attractions and places of interest at the locations.

An information board will also be erected on the green at the junction of Marlbog Road and the former main Dublin Road opposite Sexton’s road house. It will match the existing signage at the landscaped landmark on the green.

The cost of first phase of the trail is expected to be €13,000, and Tidy Towns will be seeking sponsorship to meet the shortfall.