Council squares up to truckers - Meath Chronicle
Council squares up to truckers - Meath Chronicle:
More on Enfield tolling situation. Meath County Council seems to be taking a stronger line on this one but will believe a ban when I see it. Road Hauliers rightly refer to Drogheda replayed and TD expresses fears regarding tolling of M3. Looking forward to outcome of protests for hauliers in New Year.
"The council is already looking at other places where a ban on trucks is being implemented, Colr Carey revealed. Enfield had turned a blind eye to truckers going through the village for the past three years as the motorway construction was going on, as the traffic on the ring road was quite heavy as well.
“But now, everyone’s patience is exhausted,” Colr Carey added. “Enfield has gone through five years of hell and it’s time to give the
village back to the people,” he added.
About one-third of the trucks that used the N4 were now using the motorway, and not the fifty per cent claimed by the operators of the toll booth, Colr Carey said. Meath County Council director of infrastructure, Eugene Cummins, described the truckers going through Enfield as “mischievous and rude” and said they may be putting lives at risk, especially children’s.
Jimmy Quinn of the IRHA described the situation in Enfield as “total action replay Drogheda” where hauliers were being priced off the motorway. The M4 charge is set to rise to E6.20 in the new year, the most expensive in the country for the haulage industry.
However, he added that drivers should not be going through Enfield, and should be using the ring road. Mr Quinn described as"
Julianstown Experience Repeated
Deja Vu in Clonard. History repeats itself with the opening of the new M4 complete with toll. The locals in small "bypassed" villages are scratching their heads as they watche HGVs thunder through their communities. A massive raod development fails to deliver quality of life to people living on the old route.
This is the second national route toll opened after Drogheda; and it is clear that no lessons have been learnt 2 and a half years on. Here's how it will go:
1/ Local reps will make noises about "banning" HGVs from towns, but having been seen to do the right thing will do nothing when it transpires that this is beyond their powers and against instructions from party headquarters. Remember provinding an "alternative" route is national policy even if it is at the expense of local communities.
2/ NRA and national politicians will say it's not their problem. N route gets reclasified as an R route, over to the local authority (forward pass)
3/ Local authority: no mon no fun. Nothing we can do. Can't ban trucks. Speed? that's the guards problem. (note there are traffic regulations which the local authority must refer to and includes calculations for traffic lights and guidelines for safety considerations in road design.)
4/ Guards will mount the odd speed check especially at the start. Frequency will dwindle, maybe more checks if there is a major accident. Gardai are massively under resourced and road safety is not top of the agenda since the police see it as generating negative sentiment towards them.
[As time goes by......]
5/ Situation will deteriorate. Truckers will do a deal with NRA to reduce tolls, but still massive truck volumes.
6/ Development continues, accelerated by new motorway, traffic volumes increase
7/ Local residents will organise and start campaigning. After about ten years things will be worse than ever and maybe there will be an election and something will be done.
Read more at www.clonard.org/
Meath council warns drivers over M4 boycott
RTE News - Meath council warns drivers over M4 boycott
What's the story here. MCC getting antse about trucks passing through Enfield. Is Julianstown the last outpost of Meath? Some of them should come here and take a look at what has been going on for the last 2 and a half years.
Clonard Village
Clonard Village: Another Julianstown
Nice site from another village on an old national route. Clonard is located between Enfield and Kinnegad. Interestingly enough it has just been "bypassed", but is already suffering from the same problems as Julianstown.
TOLLING ON THE M4 MOTORWAY
The Irish Times - Letters:
Letter TOLLING ON THE M4 MOTORWAY
Dec 15, 2005
More complaints about motorway tolling
Madam, - Elected representatives from Meath, Kildare and Westmeath have raised serious and legitimate concerns about the tolling of the M4 motorway and its impact on already hard-pressed commuters travelling daily to work in Dublin from these counties.
The NRA and the Minister for Transport have played down the costs and effects of the toll, and have responded by saying that the motorists have a choice: they are not forced to use the motorway, they can still go the old road if they wish.
However, if much-needed and long overdue bypasses of severely congested towns are incorporated in a motorway scheme along an expanding commuter belt, it is hard to see what real choice there is for the commuters (most of whom had no real choice in where they could purchase a home in the first place). When you add to this factors such as the lack of provision for viable and efficient public transport alternatives and the lack of an integrated transport plan - as in the case of the proposed double-tolled M3 in Meath (whose tolling contract now looks like it could continue for 35 to 45 years!) - you have to wonder: (i) who is driving our transport and planning policies? (ii) what impact will they have on sustainable development? and (iii) where is the vision? - Yours,
JULITTA CLANCY,
Batterstown,
Co Meath.
Irish Times Article - Transport, bus firms to avoid Kilcock-Kinnegad bypass
Irish Times Article - Transport, bus firms to avoid Kilcock-Kinnegad bypassInteresting article from
The Irish Times today. Haulage firms will not pay tolls due to cost, and will continue to drive through towns and villages. Julianstown proved this two years ago and now it's the turn of residents on the old Galway road to suffer. Interesting to see that there will be protests next year. Julianstown.Com looks forward to joining with the truckers to protest at the ridiculous tolling strategy.
Transport, bus firms to avoid Kilcock-Kinnegad bypass
Teresa O'Malley
15/12/2005
The managing director of a transport company with depots in Mayo and Blanchardstown, Dublin, said the annual cost of using the Kilcock-Kinnegad bypass for 20 trucks would be €120,000.
Noel Howley said that kind of money was simply not in the haulage business and he would not allow his lorry drivers to use the new road. "It's a national scandal and I'm flabbergasted that the reaction in the west and by the national Road Haulage Association to the new toll charges is not stronger."
Mr Howley said the cost of return tolls for one lorry to travel from the depot in Blanchardstown to the west was now €22.40.
"It's crazy. It does not make economic sense at any level. As hauliers we are fed up of being pushed around and that's what's happening. If it's not diesel prices, it's toll charges, labour costs, tax and insurance on our vehicles."
The annual tax on an articulated lorry was €2,500. Where was the money being spent, he asked. "The reality is that hauliers will not be using this new toll road between Kilcock and Kinnegad because the cost is prohibitive."
Mr Howley said traffic volume would be minimal as most regular road users would not be able to afford the toll. A new road hauliers group would be set up in the new year to combat the charges, he said."We will take to the roads and we will do whatever is needed to put an end to being walked on, as is the case, at present."
Siobhán Holliman writes: Galway's main private bus operators also said they were not using the motorway on their Galway-Dublin services. Citylink, which provides almost 20 buses a day between Galway and Dublin and Dublin airport, said it was not using the route because it would have an adverse impact on their business.
A spokesman said the company picked up and dropped many passengers in Kinnegad and Enfield. "Taking the motorway would bypass our normal busy pick-up spots and affect our customer base too much," he said.
Nestor Bus Ltd, based in Turloughmore, said the toll made the route too expensive. A round-trip toll of €7.40-€7.60 on each of its services was too much to pay. A spokesman said: "We already pay a round-trip toll of €6.20 on the M50 going to the airport and there are more add-on costs for us there." It will review its services at the end of January.
Well Done Drogheda Utd.
Well done to Drogheda United!
Comment on Traffic Situation
Ironballs32 writes:
The major cause of traffice problems in Julianstown is due
in part to the bizarre tolling arrangements of the Drogheda by pass.
This should really be the main focus of action. Drogheda people are being
tolled in and out of the town rather than for bypassing it (NTR
maximasing income) and therefore choose to come out the old Dublin road.
I still feel that traffic lights are too heavy handed an approach to
the ulianstown traffic issues and that calming measures are more
suitable, narrow the road and enforce the speed limit which is blatantly broken
each morning as cars fly up the hill at the school rushing to get to
the tailback at Whitehall in Dublin.
I really do feel that the real benefits of TWO sets of traffic lights
in Julianstown are far outweighed by the impact on the locals travelling
short distances. just look at Enfield where even with a by pass it can
take locals 20 mins to get from one end of the town to the other. Is
this what we want?
Buy a pint of milk at the new petrol station at Kennogue and with
tailbacks from the two sets of traffic lights how long will it take to get
to the Laytown road?
A more imaginative approach is whats needed, and a focus back onto the
NTR and the Toll which forces those commuters through our village.
