€100,000 spent to date on plans for Trim street

Trim Town Councillors have again deferred making a decision on whether to introduce a one-way system at Navangate until their April meeting to allow them time to consider a new report commissioned by two local businesspeople on the proposed plans. The council's latest plan for the street would see Navangate remain two-way as far as Griffin Park and then become one-way from Griffin Park to Haggard Street. This scheme provides 16 car parking spaces. This is the third part eight planning application prepared for the reconstruction of the street. The first, which dates back to 2007, kept the street as two-way but was rejected by councillors as it reduced parking from 18 down to just three spaces. Last year, planners came back with a revised application that was again two-way but this time had just one parking space. Some 103 submissions were received on those plans from both local residents and businesses and this plan was also rejected. After being told that the widths were not there for the street to be kept two-way and to also provide for parking, councillors asked the planners to look at a one-way system for the street and this was the latest plan to go on public display. A total of 183 submissions were received on this plan and the planning report was brought before councillors at their February meeting. However, they postponed making a decision until their March meeting to further consider the matter. To date, approximately €100,000 has been spent on preparing the different plans for the reconstruction of Navangate. At last week's meeting of the town council, Cllr James O'Shea, who is a resident of Griffin Park, said they had recently received new information and with the general election taking up a lot of time, he did not feel enough time had been given to consider the matter and he proposed that councillors again postpone making a decision until April. He asked that the engineers make available any other information needed. Cllr Donall O'Brien agreed that more time was needed. Big decision Cllr Trevor Golden said he had only received the plan on Friday and would like time to consider it. He said it was a big decision for the future of the town and suggested that a special meeting be convened to discuss all the options. Cllr Phil Cantwell said two busineses had put their hands in their pockets to get a report and this showed their concern for their businesses. He said that if the system is working OK as it is, they should simply resurface the street, repair the footpaths and take a foot off the footpath on one side. He said the businesses can continue and people would be happy. Cllr Vincent McHugh said there are narrow streets all over the country and they don't cause a problem. All that is needed is a bit of courtesy by motorists, he added. He said no accidents had been reported and he had spent two hours on the street watching traffic and, while no trucks had come along, there didn't seem to be a problem for traffic passing. "I am in favour of leaving it as it is and resurfacing it. 183 people went to the trouble of sending submissions. If that many people are not happy, we should not make it one-way. We need to keep it two-way, and do away a few parking spaces if we need to." Cllr Willie Fay said there is only one narrow point on the street and that they could cut a foot off the footpath on one side. "It is the logical thing to do instead of spending money on wider paths and narrow roads," he said. Cllr Ronan McKenna, who objected to the one-way system when it was propsoed, said: "It is amazing to hear the points of view of people around table who would like to blame officials for this plan when they proposed it and agreed to put it on public display. There were only two councillors against putting through the one way system. "Those who made the proposal, and are now not happy with it, wasted officials' time and wasted public money. It's easy to blame the town clerk and engineer, but they followed the instructions of councillors. If you wish to delay to April to consider it, I will support it but the council must take responsibility." Cllr O'Brien responded that they had proposed the one-way plan be looked and there was no other way to do it other than for it to go on public display. "You have to weigh it up at end of the part eight. 183 submissions changes things. We have to make decisions based on information we have," he said. Cllr Gerry Reilly said he had no problem waiting for the April meeting to consider the new information but pointed that while there is some new information in the report they received, there was also a lot that was left out. "Here we are at the third part eight, with €100,000 spent. We have to make a decision and stop wasting money. We need to make a decision or spend the money somewhere else, We can't keep going back to part eights," said Cllr Reilly. Town manager Tadhg McDonnell said he was happy to facilitate a special meeting. He asked that if members had specific technical questions, that they email them in advance of the meeting so that officials could have appropriate replies prepared. The special meeting has been scheduled to take place on Wednesday 6th April.