Traffic calming measures for Bishopstown estate

SINN Féin councillor Orla O’Leary has welcomed progress on traffic-calming measures for Kenley Estate in Bishopstown.

The Cork City SouthWest councillor was contacted by residents of Kenley Estate, which takes in Kenley Avenue, Kenley Drive, Kenley Close, and Kenley Circle, late last year.

Residents were concerned about speeding and illegal parking and held a walkabout of the estate, with Ms O’Leary, to highlight the issues.

“When you come into the main road of the estate, there are a number of speed bumps, but outside of that, there are hardly any,” she told The Echo. “They have hardly any yellow lines throughout the estate, also, so people were parking there illegally at critical points of the estate, in terms of junctions, to the point where they had incidents of people being narrowly missed by cars, because motorists’ vision was impaired by the illegal parking.”

Ms O’Leary submitted a motion to council to ask for traffic-calming measures, including the repainting of speed ramps and double yellow lines. “Residents were also looking for dropped kerbs throughout the estate just to improve mobility,” she said.

“We had a parent with us on the walkabout who had his child in a buggy, highlighting where the kerbs could be dropped just to improve mobility for people with buggies, but also for people with reduced mobility, as it is quite an ageing population in the estate. There are also wheelchair users living there, too.”

A report from Cork City Council has committed to adding Kenley Estate to the list of requests for traffic-calming and reviewing the condition of the lining in the estate and assessing the request for new lines. 

“This is progress, but there’s still a bit of work to do with the council in identifying where the dropped kerbs could be placed, but residents are happy that it is on the list and that there has been progress.”