‘Weekend dweller’ preventing Wexford council from carrying out vital safety works at ‘death trap’ junction
Wexford PeopleA “weekend dweller” is preventing Wexford County Council (WCC) from carrying out vital road safety works at a junction in Barrystown. That’s according to Councillor Jim Codd who, at the monthly meeting of the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD), described the junction as a “death trap”.
In order to widen the junction and improve sight lines, some cooperation from adjoining landowners will be required; cooperation which, to date, has not been forthcoming.
“We have this phenomenon where people with weekend homes come along and dictate,” said Cllr Codd. “That junction is a death trap. It’s disgraceful the landowners won’t cooperate.”
Area engineer Michael Brazzill had previously liaised with the landowners in the hope of receiving permission to alter the junction, however, having received a negative response, he was now willing to explore an alternative option.
“We could create a new road there and close off the other section,” he suggested.
This did not meet with the approval of Cllr Ger Carthy.
“Can we just CPO (compulsory purchase order) the land there?” he asked, referencing a legal process which would allow the council to purchase the land. “We’ve enough roads without building more of them.”
“We’re going to have to build a new road to satisfy a weekend dweller,” he said.
Arguing that a CPO “would take years” to complete, Mr Brazzill insisted that building a new road was the “preferable option” for WCC.
“We’ll go with whichever is the most cost-effective option,” he said. “A new road might be a better outcome in terms of cost than a CPO.”