Kentstown road closure 'costing my business €1,500 a day'

Shop-owners depending on local communities and passing trade for their Christmas business are being hard hit by a series of road closures outside Navan which have left them in "no-man's land". Caolac Monaghan, who owns Monaghan's Londis shop and pub in Kentstown, said a major road closure on the road between Kentstown and the N2 is costing him €1,500 a day in turnover. He said his business was missing out on a huge flow of traffic between Drogheda and Navan. Mr Monaghan is on the main feeder route from Navan and, while the work started a month ago, it will be March before the road improvement project is finished. He said it was a particularly difficult time of year for roadworks to be going on, especially when the work was going to adversely affect local communities. "They're talking about the work ending by March but the way things are going, I could be gone by January," he said. "It's absolutely killing us." Mr Monaghan said that there were other roadworks going on at Irishtown but, in this case, it had been possible to keep one side of the road open. "It's the usual story in Meath - they said they had to spend the money before the end of the year so they start the work in the run-up to Christmas," he added. The businessman said he could not understand why the work was confined to daylight hours. "There is no night working in order to get it done and the whole thing is shut down for weekend," he said. He said he was in the habit of leaving his customers home after his pub has closed but, since the roadworks started, it has put miles onto his journey. "I don't want to come across as a ranting businessman - this problem is affecting the whole community," Mr Monaghan added. Thomas Curtis, who runs a shop at Curtis's Cross, said the roadworks also were affecting his business "fairly desperately". He said his business was caught between traffic control lights. "People are not going to stop when they're in a full flow of traffic. They just can't get near you and it means that 50 per cent of my business is lost." He said people in the community were having to drive five to six miles out of their way to get to their destination. Mr Curtis said he had received no notice of the roadworks. He said his shop would normally sell up to 100 Christmas trees. That's down to 50 this year. "People haven't been able to pull in here for the last month," he added. He said he had discussions with the engineer on the site and he (Mr Curtis) understood and health and safety aspects of the works, especially in view of the aftermath of the Kentstown bus crash. "The work has started now and it can't be finished until it's finished. It's as simple as that. But I'll be glad when it's over." A spokesperson for Meath County Council said that the possibility of reopening the Kentstown road for the Christmas period had been examined by a council engineer but had been decided against because of health and safety considerations.