'Problem is with speeding, not with speed limits': Council debate continues on road speed limit changes

THERE is a problem in Ireland with speeding rather than with speed limits, the newly elected Independent councillor Peter O’Donoghue suggested at yesterday’s Cork County Council meeting.

His comments were made during an item relating to speed limit adjustments on local roads as part of a national scheme aimed at decreasing road deaths.

The approval of councillors was being sought to amend county wide speed limit bye laws to uphold two speed limit appeals for roads in West Cork as well as addressing issues around the reclassification of roads due to the Macroom bypass.

The specific issues centred on the R600 in Clonakilty, where the proposal was to reduce the speed limit from 60km/h to 50km/h, while it was also being proposed to increase the speed limit in Durrus from the village to the GAA pitch from 50km/h to 60km/h.

Another issue arose, as part of the Macroom bypass was included in the former Urban District Council remit and as such the maximum speed limit would be 50km/h. However, the speed limit for the bypass had been set as 100km/h and permission was being sought from the councillors to reclassify the road.

While there was some initial agreement with the proposals regarding the speed limit appeals, questions arose about proposals to introduce lower speed limits on routes classified as local roads in the county.

Following a debate, it was decided to defer the matter for consideration at a meeting next month.

Expressing his opposition to the reduction of speed limits on local roads, Mr O’Donoghue said: “Enforce the existing speed limits that are already there. The existing speed limits are not being enforced at this moment in time.”

Niall Healy, council roads director, said that the issue of enforcement was one for the gardaí.

He also agreed with a suggestion from councillor Ted Lucey that traffic calming measures would be considered for the former N22 road.

Mr Lucey also pointed out that the proposals regarding the reduction of speed limits across the different road types would take several months to implement in full.

Independent Ireland councillor, Danny Collins, also expressed his opposition to reducing the speed limits on local roads and went as far as to suggest that beds would need to be provided for councillors travelling from West Cork to council meetings as the journeys both ways would take considerably longer.