‘Hundreds’ complaining about Kerry town’s new pedestrian crossing, claims councillor

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

A Kerry councillor has warned that ‘hundreds’ of people are complaining about Dingle town’s new pedestrian crossing.

Councillor Robert Brosnan said there was ‘confusion and chaos’ at the crossing and asked Kerry County Council (KCC) review the use of the pedestrian lights.

Works on a pedestrian crossing at The Tracks road in Dingle were completed during Q2 of this year, with the pedestrian lights turned on at the start of July.

At a recent Castleisland/Corca Dhuibhne Municipal District meeting, Cllr Brosnan said he had previously spoken out against the establishment of the crossing at the site, which he said had requisitioned an ‘awful’ amount of car parking space, as well as narrowing the road.

He claimed there was ‘fierce frustration’ from bus and HVG’s drivers who were finding there was ‘very little’ room on the narrowed road and were in danger of knocking mirrors.

Cllr Brosnan requested KCC turn off the lights to allow the traffic to flow unimpeded through the crossing, arguing that it was not the right time of the year to be adding lights.

KCC’s senior engineer, Paul Curry, replied that the proposal had been approved by the councillors last year and was put in place for pedestrian safety, and to regularise the bus stop on both sizes of the road.

“To switch it off it will cause driver confusion,” he advised.

“To leave them off will leave the current crossing in a compromised position…the signage that is there is to advise cars approaching the crossing that there is a crossing there.”

Cllr Brosnan replied that ‘hundreds’ of people were complaining about the crossing, adding that often pedestrians had already crossed the road before the lights had gone red, leaving traffic idle for no reason.

“Come back and deal with all the road rage so,” he said.

“Theres no need for what’s going on there.”

Councillor Charlie Farrelly attested to Cllr Brosnan’s statements, recounting a recent trip to Dingle where he was quickly ‘accosted’ about the crossing by locals.

‘There frustration is there,” he said.

KCC acknowledged there would likely be ‘teething problems’ with such infrastructure and that the lights would be tweaked based on feedback from the public.

They asked elected members to give it ‘some time to settle’ before any further review was requested.