Wexford town street to be reopened to traffic following concerns over new one-way system

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Mallin Street in Wexford town is to reopen to traffic during business hours after the local council confirmed it would not be extending Its application to keep it closed, Currently the street is closed from the hours of 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. to facilitate outdoor dining at the cafés and restaurants located in the area.

However, following the decision to turn the nearby John Street into a one-way system, there have been repeated calls to reopen Mallin St to provide emergency services with an alternative route to and from Wexford General Hospital.

At the November meeting of the Wexford Borough District (WBD) senior engineer Lar Lett said it was his intention to reopen the street in January of next year.

“Mallin Street had been closed during business hours under Section 75 of the Roads Act which allows a local authority to temporarily close a road,” said Mr Lett. “That license expires on December 31 of this year and I don’t intend to extend it. The intention is to open up the street again."

"I will engage with the businesses which operate in the area but I have no intention of renewing the license there. By opening the street it will increase access to the southern end of the town and help redistribute traffic using the one-way system on John Street.”

The closure of Mallin Street has been a contentious one over the last couple of years. In May, the closure was once again raised in relation to the council’s blanket ban on advertising sandwich boards and bollard sleeves.

Liam O’Grady of Be Pierced on Mallin Street says that the local authority had already taken customers away from his business with the decision to pedestrianise the street during the day, a move that he had initially objected to.

"The issue I have is that my street here is actually closed off to traffic. Nobody can drive up past my shop. That wasn’t always the case, they closed it off a couple of years ago,” he said.

"I asked them not to do it because we were getting a lot less traffic down this way anyway since the Bullring became one-way. You can’t get down the town this way any more.”

As a result, Liam says that his business has suffered from a lack of visibility.

"Now people can’t drive up past my shop, they can’t see it, they don’t know I’m there,” he said. “These are measures they (the council) brought in themselves that have actually impeded me getting customers into my shop. That sign there is all that I have.”