Attempt to delay implementation of reduced speed limits in county Cork rebuffed

An attempt to defer a decision on the implementation of national legislation to reduce the default speed limit from 80km per hour to 60kmph from February of next year was rebuffed at Monday’s Cork County Council meeting.

Drivers on over 30 local roads — roads with the L-designation — throughout Cork will be required to observe the lower speed limit as of February 7 of next year following the enactment of the Road Traffic Act in April of this year, roads director Niall Healy told councillors.

A number of roads with a wider carriage than 5.5m and meeting other criteria, including relating to the number of junctions and access points, won’t have their speed limits reduced from 80kmph, Mr Healy explained.

“There is a provision whereby a local authority can apply for exemptions and we’ve gone through a process, based on the regulations and the guidelines, to see which roads could be retained at 80kmph as opposed to automatically defaulting to 60kmph as per the legislation,” he said, pointing out that there had been a process of public consultation in August and the result of the process was that over 30 such roads had been identified.

When it was pointed out that most of these roads were in North Cork, with none in West Cork, county mayor Joe Carroll quipped: “If we got a road with 5.5 metres in West Cork, we’d think it was a runway of some sort.” 

A number of other councillors raised questions about the issue of signage and public awareness. Mr Healy pointed out there would be a public campaign through media and confirmed that signage was being put in place at present which would be covered until February 7.

As there was a difficulty with the council’s information technology system which delivers electronic copies of relevant documents to councillors, the Bantry based Independent Ireland councillor Danny Collins called for the decision to adapt as by-laws the new recommendatins to be deferred. 

However, due to the shortness of time between now and February 7, the Mayor decided the new limits should be decided upon on the day and the by-laws were adapted.