Planners rule out redesign of main John St junction in Kells to accommodate roundabout

Meath County Council is to look at providing a roundabout at the Mullingar Road Junction at the Railway Bar in Kells.

At a meeting of Kells Municipal Council last week, members were told the council would consider a roundabout at that location, but that a roundabout at the junction of Cross Street, Market Street, Caste Street and John Street was not feasible as the area was too tight.

Cllr Sean Drew said the Mullingar Road junction had become a problem over last few years with the amount of new development that side of town and motorists using the access to the motorway.

Senior engineer Nicholas Wyatt gave a presentation to councillors in response to a recent motion by Cllr Drew calling for roundabouts at the two locations.

He recalled the trial one-way system carried out in the town in 2016, which met a lot of opposition.

“In 2021 we talked about a reduced one way system - keeping John Street as twoway and Cross Street going from Castle Street to Farrell Street one way. It was felt that might be more acceptable and could create more on street parking.”

He pointed out that in 2023 the public realm plan proposed John Street and Cross Street would be two-way with Kenlis Place, Market Street, New Market Street and Church Street one-way in a clockwise direction.

Cllr Drew said the public realm plan was supposed to be the “be all and end all” and was going to resolve all issues but it was going nowhere. “Lets call a spade a spade, it is going nowhere. There are no dates. There is no sign of it.

“I put in the notice of motion about these roundabouts to see if we could get something done.

“The public realm plan is not going to happen, we are not going to get the whole big job done, but that shouldn't be stopping us looking at and resolving issues for pedestrians in the town. That is where the roundabouts have come up.

“Can we get piecemeal works done in relation to traffic safety and traffic flow within the town without having to go through the pubic realm process? Can we get funding for works like pedestrian crossings and roundabouts in certain places?”

Cllr Drew said he believed the reduced one-way system would get public support.

Cllr Sarah Reilly recalled looking for a pedestrian crossing on Oldcastle Road. “We were told we could not get that crossing until the public realm plan was in place. That was about ten years ago. That's just one example. Do we need a public realm plan at this stage? Is it going to tell us we need really big footpaths and reduce the number of parking spaces? Is that really what we want or need in the town?”

Cllr Reilly said a lot of older people come in to shop in Kells and there was a problem with car parking. “We hear about getting extra car parking in different places, but none of them materialised.

“Can we just start different pieces of work that could improve the town for pedestrians but also for motorists while maintaining the parking in the town,” she asked.

Cllr Eugene Cassidy said a proper transport plan for the town was needed and the only they would get funding is from the Rural Regeneration Development Fund (RRDF).

“Kingscourt got an allocation of €10.5 million. If we got the half of that in Kells, we could get an awful done and Kingscourt is a lot smaller than Kells.”

He said that he believed a reduced one-way system was needed.

“We won't get funding unless there is a public realm plan and we won't have a public realm plan unless we have some type of one way system,” he said.

Cllr David Gilroy said there were a lot of pedestrian issues around the town.

“It is not straightforward to get RRDF funding. None of the public realm plans outside Navan have been funded. We could spend years developing huge schemes and in the meantime we have these issues. It could be ten years before we get funding. At some stage we need to say we need these measures now. The town itself has to function today.

“The public realm plans hinder progress on smaller scale works. Can we have a longer term vision but carry out what is needed now?,” he asked.

Cllr Michael Gallagher said the first thing the council needed to do was to get additional parking in the town.