'Top-down approach not working for speed limit review'
Members of Mayo County Council’s Roads and Sustainable Travel Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) have called for the local authority to adopt its own speed limit by-laws ahead of the outcome of a national review.
Fine Gael Cllr Jarlath Munnelly made the proposal at last week’s meeting of the SPC, held at the TF Royal Hotel in Castlebar.
The council's Acting Head of Roads Conrad Harley told the meeting that while a new default speed limit of 60km had been introduced on all of the county’s local roads, except those that met certain criteria to remain at 80km, the change of the default speed limit on urban roads to 30km is stalled as the local authority awaits revised guidelines from the Department of Transport. He added that the urban speed limit review is no longer going to be a national default of 30km but will vary between local authorities.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Damien Ryan said the national speed limit review has been a top-down approach that has not worked out with accident statistics still high three months on from its initial implementation.
“Every municipal district should have made recommendations with the Gardaí around the table as part of that discussion and maybe by-laws were the way to go,” he said. “The officials from the Department don’t know Mayo better than the 30 elected councillors.”
Independent Cllr Richard Finn supported his colleague's comments.
“If they took more interest in what we see and experience every day from talking to the general public then you would have a better system that suits every county,” he said. “People jump on the bandwagon and say we need more Gardaí but if we employed twice as many Gardaí it won’t change the bad habits out on the road. It goes back to education and teaching people about driving responsibly.”
Cllr Munnelly said a mess has been made of the national speed limit review. He proposed the council go ahead with its own by-laws.
“Public consultation is built into the by-law process and An Garda Síochána and whoever else can comment on it,” he said.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Annie May Reape supported his proposal.
The council's Director of Roads Tom Gilligan said the local authority had tried to work within the confines of the national speed limit review but acknowledged it may have some shortcomings.
“We tried to work with this national policy but in some aspects it is not fit for purpose. In some areas, you need a local solution to a local problem and we should get the opportunity,” he said.
Mr Harley said the awaited guidelines, which are expected by late 2025, partly revolve around towns and villages situated on a national or regional route and where the speed limit would transition from the higher limit to the lower urban limit.
“That is where officialdom has it wrong,” said Cllr Ryan. “If we sat around a table, commonsense would prevail. We’d have the whole thing done in a week. The top-down approach has not worked.”
