Council looks to trial moves to make Balrothery friendlier for cyclists and pedestrians

Fingal County Council is set to trial a new one-way system through Balrothery later this year.

The trial forms part of the council’s new active travel plan for the village, which sits about 2.5 km south of Balbriggan’s town centre. 

Alongside the one-way system, the council intends to test out measures to reduce speeds around the entrance to the local primary school. 

And bring in a restriction on all vehicles, except buses, from accessing the village from the R132 north of the village.

These three trials should happen in the third quarter of this year, said Shane McMorrow, a council executive engineer, at the Balbriggan/Rush-Lusk/Swords Area Committee meeting on 12 March.

They’re designed to resolve a number of issues raised by locals, including speeding, intimidating traffic, narrow and obstructed footpaths, congestion and unsafe school access, McMorrow said. 

The council hopes to make the village a destination, he said. “So we’re trying to facilitate walking and cycling for all, support the local communication, and support community interactions.”

The council will run public consultations around each project in the Balrothery active travel plan as they go, he said, but one major aim is to make it less possible for drivers to speed through the village. 

“It’ll also give back space that we can reallocate the road for placemaking because it is a heritage town,” he said. “We’ll have more space to make it look like a heritage town.”

To walk around

As part of the plan, Fingal County Council will be aiming to create an “active travel spine” through the village by increasing the size of its paths and linking it into the wider cycle network, McMorrow, the council executive engineer, told the area committee last Thursday. 

“This is basically to get people into and out of the centre of Balrothery,” he said.

That spine weaves through Balrothery beginning at the northern entrance into the village from the R132, and travels down the Coach Road before turning east onto Rosepark, Ringfort View and then Darcystown Road towards Skerries, according to slides at the meeting.

People should be able to walk into and out of the village easier, McMorrow said. “Road narrowing. Pavement widening. So reallocating space to pedestrians.”

Changes may also include some side-street junction improvements, like shortening and adding more crossing points, putting in tactile paving, he said.

At the entrance to the St Oliver Plunkett’s National School, the council wants speed reduction and placemaking enhancements, he said, “to make people very aware that they’re at a school”.

Those enhancements could include some seating, trees and additional greenery, and cycle parking, according to slides from the presentation.

They are looking to reduce traffic from the northern entry point into the village and past the school by limiting its use to buses, he said.

The other key aim is to make the village a place where people can stop, rather than being a place they pass through, he said. 

“We want to put transition points on the main roads and bus stops, and we want to signal the arrival at the place where pedestrians get priority,” he said.

In the village centre, the plan proposes changes to current traffic circulation to increase space for pedestrians, he said. “There’s going to be increased pedestrian priority at junctions and junction tightening, safer exits and side roads.”

Zebra and courtesy crossings will go in, he said. “So informal and formal crossing points to make crossing safer in the centre.”

The council will also look to extend footpaths at identified pinch points and areas of concern, put in some planters, benches and trees, he said.

The speed limit on the Inch Road, which connects to the village via the R132, could be lowered from 80 km/hour to 60 km/hour as part of the plan, he said. “So we’ll slow cars down as they approach the village.”

From the southern end of the village, at Glebe Park, the plan also intends to widen footpaths to better separate pedestrians and vehicles, he said.

The next step for the council will be to prepare designs for the three trials the council intends to run on the ground later this year, McMorrow told the committee.

Enforcement through design

Local councillors were largely favourable towards McMorrow’s presentation.

Much of the plan is good and the council did plenty of consultation with locals, said independent Councillor Grainne Maguire. “It’s a funny space, Balrothery.”

There is already a ban on vehicles over 3 tonnes in the village, she said. “And sure everybody ignores that. So enforcement is a huge piece.”

The idea behind the plan is that it would let the design be the enforcement, McMorrow said. “It won’t be possible to drive around Balrothery at speed now anymore when this plan is implemented.”

Maguire said just a few days prior to the presentation, local councillors were told that a person had been seriously injured as they walked along the Coach Road.

That must be a call for immediate action, she said. “While we are looking at a trial in quarter three, I think something has to be done more immediate than that.”

McMorrow said that they could have a chat about looking to do some immediate work at that particular junction.

Labour Councillor Brendan Ryan asked about the Coach Road, and the location of the town’s pharmacy. “It’s kind of a difficult area for parking et centra, and for the operation of the pharmacy.”

Parking is already extremely limited in the area and stands to be further reduced, a spokesperson for Balrothery Pharmacy said on Tuesday. “But the elderly and disabled will need easy access to our site for medications, vaccinations and more.”

Similarly, their customers, 18 employees and suppliers need a place to park, they said. “We welcome all efforts to make the area a healthier, more pleasant place to live. But these plans must balance new ideas against the real needs of our community.”

McMorrow said at the meeting that they had considered the pharmacy, and would continue to get feedback from them during the trial. “And we’ll tweak the trial to fit the permanent solution at the end of it to make sure it works for everyone.”

Right now, the plan is aspirational, he said. “It’s going to put us in a position to deliver the change by getting funding.”