THE Council has been urged to review all residential streets between Barrington Street and New Street, on both sides of O’Connell Avenue, and including Lord Edward Street and the Rosbrien Road.
Speaking at the April monthly Metropolitan District meeting, Independent councillor Maria Donoghue also called for a traffic strategy to be developed to ensure greater safety for pedestrians, reduced congestion for residents, and clear and frequent crossing points for pedestrians.
City centre residents, Cllr Donoghue pointed out, benefit greatly from their convenient proximity to shops and schools, but claims that their quality of life is now being challenged.
The City West representative said that communities are now enduring heavy traffic, congestion, few pedestrian crossing points, and the high speed of vehicles. The quality of life city residents should benefit from now needs to be enshrined, she maintains.
“While we benefit from everything being a short walk away, the walk is becoming more and more difficult,” she told Council members.
“There is no pedestrian crossing point from Tait housing on Lord Edward Street to Punches Cross – over one kilometre away. I have received a number of reports from parents and grandparents walking their children to school that, as they walk across the pedestrian crossing at Tait housing, cars drive through the crossing at high speed.”
The Rosbrien Road footpaths, Cllr Donogue said, vary greatly in size and are less than a metre in width at their minimum. Two buggies, she opined, can not pass each other on the footpath at certain points as it is too narrow.
In response to the City West representative, the Council said that given the extent of the area referenced and the range of issues raised, including traffic management, pedestrian safety, and congestion, it would be appropriate that this proposal be
considered in the context of existing policies and Transportation Plan for Limerick City currently in design.
– Local Democracy Reporting Scheme