‘We’re not for turning on this’: opposition to Ballagh public realm plan continues despite council offer to address parking issues

Ballaghaderreen businessman Michael Mulligan has warned that local traders and residents “are not for turning” on their opposition to the council's public realm enhancement plan despite the local authority's offer to address the loss of substantial parking spaces in the town.

Daily protests over the town centre enhancement project has now entered its fourth week with up to thirty people turning up each morning in The Square to oppose the plans.

The local business community claim the public realm enhancement project will decimate local trade by removing a significant amount of parking spaces, especially in the town centre, while the new layouts involving footpath widening and road narrowing are already making the town very difficult for vehicles to navigate.

Retailers are also opposed to the proposal to permanently close one of the roads in The Square outside the bank and other businesses. Traders are demanding major revisions to the plans before they will withdraw their protest.

The project contractor and his workforce have not been on site since the controversy began, and work has ground to a halt since the protests began on March 10th.

In a statement issued today, Thursday, Roscommon County Council said it is proposing to fully offset the loss of parking spaces in the town centre. This includes providing a minimum of eight additional parking spaces in and near the Town Square itself and improving access, lighting, security and signage for the nearby 72-space Plots carpark. “These works can be completed within the confines of the existing planning permission for the project,” it said.

The council is also proposing to develop a new 50-space carpark located within 60 metres of the town square, to be delivered in parallel with the public realm scheme.

The council statement outlines that the project is approximately 40% complete and that significant expenditure - €2.4m to date - has been incurred on planning and design and construction.

However, former councillor and businessman, Michael Mulligan, described the council's proposals as “a waste of time”.

“Tell them not to be wasting their time spending this money. It is a revised Part 8 that we want and it has been done in other counties,” he said, claiming that 72 car-parking spaces in the town will be lost in total, including 47 on The Square.

“This plan is not fit for purpose. School buses can’t get up to St. Nathy’s College, neither can the fire brigade or any other services,” he said.

Meanwhile, local Independent councillor and businessman, Micheál Frain, has repeated his call for mediation to take place.

“The council and the traders need to get a mediator to go through everything and if something needs to be shelved, it needs to be shelved. We need to sit down and get this resolved for everyone concerned,” he said.

Cllr Frain emphasised that the council need to look at the whole aspect of safety. 

“I have asked them to do this and I hope it is being done. There are issues with safety regardless of safety audits having already been carried out.

“Does anyone realise for one minute there might have been a mistake, it might be wrong? The plans might suit a programme on Autocad but there’s a huge volume of trucks coming through the town and this plan needs to be looked at again,” he said.

Referring to the offer of additional parking from the council, the councillor said it was welcome but wondered why it wasn’t done initially.