Call for narrow and busy Sligo road to be widened

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

A lack of funding was presented as one of the reasons for a lack of progress on the L1502 road at Carrigans Upper, Ballymote with Councillors informing the Ballymote-Tubbercurry Municipal District meeting that the narrow road is only wide enough for one car.

Raising the motion, Cllr Dara Mulvey said, “The road is being used daily as the route to the national and secondary schools and by workers in Ballymote” while he also told the meeting loose rocks from the stone walls either side of the road are damaging vehicles.

"One man sent me a picture of damage to his tyre. It wasn’t punctured, it was burst.”

Cllr Mulvey also noted the significant number of people living in close proximity to the road saying, “there are many new houses in the area with families unable to even walk along the current road due to its narrow width.”

Cllr Mulvey queried whether a scraping could be taken from the land adjacent to the road to create a lay-by or a pull-in as there is not enough room for cars to pass when they meet.

The reply from Sligo County Council stated the 1.8km stretch of road would require “significant investment" if it were to be widened.

"There are currently no suitable government programmes available to support this scale of work on a local tertiary road. We will engage with the government to find a scheme that will support this.”

It was also noted “An LCAS (Low cost accident scheme) was applied for previously at this location, but the landowner was unwilling to sell any part of the land required.”

Cllr Paul Taylor also voiced his frustration at the condition of the road saying, “There’s a lot of people living on that road, it is not acceptable in this day and age, there are school buses using it. Saying landowners won’t comply, we can’t always just leave it at that.”