Could an additional pedestrian bridge at Newtown be the answer after recent accident?

TRIM MUNICIPAL DISTRICT MEETING NOTES

Pedestrian safety at Newtown Bridge was discussed at the February meeting of Trim Municipal District Council in the wake of a recent incident where a van struck the bridge.

Cllr Trevor Golden raised the issue of the need for lighting and highlighted how somebody walking on the bridge when the accident happened.

"We are incredibly lucky nobody was hurt. There was a lot of damage done but it could have been so much worse," he said.

The issue of lighting has come up before but was problematic because the bridge is a protected structure, but Cllr Golden said they needed to look at it again and whether new types of lighting were now available.

Cllr Aisling Dempsey asked if they could look at some sort of a pedestrian crossing over the river at Newtown on the town side of the bridge. She pointed out that a new pedestrian bridge had been cantilevered on the bridge in Navan and asked if this was something that could be looked at.

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Two year wait for power at pedestrian crossing

The new pedestrian crossing at the Lackanash Road in Trim has still not had the power turned on, with no date yet given by ESB Networks.

At last week's meeting of Trim Municipal District, Cllr Trevor Golden said the crossing must be finished over two years at this stage and yet they are still waiting for the ESB to power them.

Councillors were told that delays are happening in every area in the country, not just in Trim, and the ESB is struggling to keep up with demand and they would follow up again with them.

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