New Dunboyne link road will pave way for village HGV ban

A NEW link road planned for Dunboyne will allow Meath County Council to ban all HGVs from the village except those servicing local businesses.

The New Road will finally pave the way for a ban after more than 20 years of campaigning by local residents. Meath County Council has outlined plans for a new road, linking Kilbreena with the Dunboyne by-pass.

Consultants are currently designing the link from the Dunboyne Industrial Estate road to the R157 and a Part 8 planning application will then begin.

According to Cllr Damien O'Reilly work on the road should be complete by the end of the year.

"This will really enhance the quality of life in the area, taking trucks out of village centre by providing an alternative route for commercial vehicles..

"We can finally ban HGV’s from Dunboyne village, except those delivering to local businesses.

"We have hundreds of trucks coming into the centre of the village every day. Being able to implement a ban, will improve air quality, safety, especially for children and the elderly and improve quality life generally.

"Until we have this link, the final piece in the jigaw, we couldn't implement a ban, but now there will be an alternative route, and I will be pursuing this to ensure the ban is implemented," he said.

Local residents have been campaigning for a HGV ban for years and in 1999, then councillor, Noel Leonard led a march of over 200 Dunboyne residents, who wanted to "reclaime the village."

The Dunboyne ring road which was opened 13 years ago, as part of the M3 works alleviated some of the traffic, taking away some of the through traffic, but heavy goods vehicles accessing the industrial estate in Dunboyne still have to go into the centre of the village.

"This is a quality of life issue. We have a beautiful village that should be enjoyed safely by its residents and not have HGVs clogging up our streets," he added.

"It was a major oversight that when over the €1billion M3 project was underway, this link road wasn't part of it, instead of retrofitting it now.

"It was so incompetent, there was so much machinery and materials in the area, it could have been done quickly and cheaply, instead of waiting all these years.

"This is great news for Dunboyne and I am looking forward to the completion of the work and the implementation of the HGV ban," he said.