SLIGO’S MAIN street, which was pedestrianised three years ago, will reopen to traffic before Christmas. The issue has caused controversy in Sligo since cars were taken off O’Connell Street on August 15th, 2006.
Last month campaigners, including local traders, marked the third anniversary of pedestrianisation with a festival on the street where calls were made to preserve it as a traffic-free zone.
But members of Sligo Borough Council are to meet in two weeks to give officials the go-ahead to begin the necessary repairs to get traffic back on the street at an estimated cost of €170,000.
“It’s all systems go, all green lights,” said the Mayor of Sligo, Cllr Jimmy McGarry. “The street will be open to traffic on December 9th.”
The mayor said while he and his colleagues on the council supported the principle of pedestrianisation, it had not worked because the estimated €4.5 million needed for refurbishment had not been made available and would not be provided by the exchequer in the foreseeable future.
Earlier this year, councillors unanimously directed the city manager to reopen the street, but officials expressed concern that this would be in breach of the local development plan.
The mayor explained that this obstacle would be removed when the new Sligo and Environs Development Plan 2010 to 2016 comes into effect on December 9th.
He said that while he understood why people would like a traffic-free zone for pedestrians, O’Connell Street now was “anything but attractive and in fact is quite dangerous at night”.
Councillors maintain that people in the east ward of Sligo have effectively been cut off from the rest of the city, given the lack of infrastructure including the long-awaited East Link bridge.
Among those who had led the campaign in favour of keeping traffic off the street were Séamus Kealy, director of the Model Arts Centre in Sligo, who cited the success of similar projects in Grafton Street and Shop Street, Galway, and writer Dermot Healy. Opening the O’Connell Street festival last month, Healy said he would love to see the street become “permanently free”.
He told supporters: “Someone walking down this street in 100 years’ time will be grateful to you.” At Monday’s council meeting, senior engineer Anthony Skeffington presented a report to members detailing the €170,000 cost of reopening the street to traffic.
Councillors are to finalise the matter at the next meeting on September 21st. An estimated 600 vehicles passed through O’Connell Street every hour at peak times and 7,000 vehicles per day, before it closed to traffic in 2006.
