Council ‘optimistic’ that ABP will approve plans for Leagh Bends

CARLOW Co Council is ‘optimistically hoping’ that An Bord Pleanála will approve its plans for improving a stretch of road on the N81, known as Leagh Bends, where a number of fatal crashes have occurred.

There have been calls for the council to improve the N81, which has become a very busy artery from Carlow town to Wexford town, but none more so than in recent years when six people were killed within a year in two car crashes at Leagh Bends.

At the June meeting of Tullow Municipal District, senior engineer Orla Barrett told councillors that the council was “optimistically hopeful” that the planning authority would give it the green light to straighten the bad stretch of road. In a bid to slow down traffic in the area, the council has installed fixed speeding cameras, with 174 motorists being caught speeding in the first week of the cameras in operation.

Cllr William Paton said that he was “gobsmacked” that so many motorists were speeding through Leagh Bends, given the amount of publicity about the new cameras. He also asked Ms Barrett if straightening the bends would not make the N81 even more of a race track, to which she replied that the bends themselves weren’t particularly severe and that it was more to do with the fact that there’s a long straight road leading into them so that drivers going too fast don’t have time to correct their cars if they make a mistake.

The councillors also heard that the council received 24 submissions from members of the public about the proposed work and that the council had replied to each one and had invited them to discuss their concerns.

Cllr Jim Deane said that he had representations from local residents from the Kyleballyhue area who were worried about the junction there, while cllr John Pender said that Carlow and Wexford county councils should work together to get the N81 upgraded into a dual carriageway.

“Every junction on that road is dangerous,” said cllr Pender.

Ms Barrett told the meeting that 99% of drivers obey the speed limit on the N81 and that one of the biggest problems is that the road is so busy that it’s difficult for motorists to turn onto it from any junction because there’s so much traffic on it.

She added that Carlow Co Council’s “primary concern” was to make the road safer.