Major change to traffic flow in Ballina will go ahead... eventually

A Ballina councillor has said the consultants behind the town’s Local Transport Plan (LTP) had ‘a lot to answer for’ with regards to the delivery of its proposals.

Cllr Mark Duffy expressed his frustration at the delivery of projects proposed in the Ballina LTP following a response to a motion raised by Cllr Annie May Reape. Cllr Reape called on the Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland to revert traffic on the town’s Lower Bridge to a two-way system.

In response, area engineer Orla Bourke said this had been proposed in the Ballina LTP.

“Proposal 3 of the Ballina Local Transport Plan (LTP) recommends two-way traffic on the lower bridge. The LTP will be finalised once the Local Area Plan has been adopted. Mayo County Council will seek funding in Quarter 4 of 2024 for proposals resultant from the Ballina LTP under the Active Travel Investment Programme 2025,” she said.

Cllr Reape welcomed this but said it was disappointing that this process could take some time.

Cllr Duffy said that traffic was quickly reversed on the bridge during last year’s visit of US President Joe Biden and questioned the process behind the LTP.

“I thought the whole idea of the LTP was to have all the analysis and studies and not just be lines on maps. Consultants were paid hundreds of thousands of euro to do all of this, set it up. We were told this would be the Bible and we could tick projects off when funding became available,” he said.

“How are we allowing consultants to do a sub-standard plan that means we have to go off and do more studies to understand what will be the outcome? These consultants have a lot to answer for,” he added.

Ms Bourke explained that the LTP was a high-level plan but it was just a plan and that funding and detailed design works such as surveys and analysis were still required. She said it was up to the National Transport Authority (NTA) to deliver on funding for these projects. She added that all of the projects were ultimately tied into planning for Active Travel.