Bollards to be installed outside Wexford shop as councillor says she was ‘nearly pinned to the wall’

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Those parking illegally outside the village shop in Clonroche will soon be forced elsewhere after Wexford County Council (WCC) confirmed it is to install bollards beside the footpaths. A continued source of frustration for pedestrians using the shop, many of those driving to the Centra branch choose to abandon their cars on the footpaths rather than park in designated areas.

At the April meeting of the New Ross Municipal District (NRMD), Councillor Bridín Murphy recounted how she had almost been on the wrong end of a car parked illegally outside the shop.

“The parking is completely out of control. I nearly got pinned to the wall outside Centra the other day; someone drove straight up on to the footpath, got out of the car and went into the shop, as brazen as,” she said. “The difficulty is there isn’t a guard in the village too often, there’s no one round to issue tickets. But it has been raised with me consistently, it’s an accident waiting to happen.

“I know there’s talks of dropping the speed limit at either side of the village to 80kmh, and in the village itself to 30kmh, but parking remains a major issue.”

Fully aware of the issue, district engineer David Murphy said he had made an application to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to have bollards installed “at the front of the shop and around the bend” outside.

Fearful that this could discommode those with disabilities, Cllr John Fleming asked that the disabled parking space have bollards placed around it to stop cars without blue badges from parking there.

The issue was raised again by Cllr Fleming at the county council meeting four days later where director of roads, Mr Eamonn Hore, confirmed that, if TII was not willing to fund the bollards, WCC would step in and provide them through its own budget.