Croom businesses and residents present motorway petition to Mayor

A PETITION with over 1,400 signatures was presented to Mayor John Moran on behalf of Croom residents opposed to the proposed layout...

A PETITION with over 1,400 signatures was presented to Mayor John Moran on behalf of Croom residents opposed to the proposed layout of the new M20 Cork to Limerick motorway.

Presenting the petition to the executive mayor was Independent Ireland councillor and Croom native John O’Donoghue, who outlined concerns over heavy local traffic being redirected back into the village.

The long-awaited M20 Cork to Limerick project is expected to cut future travel times between Limerick and Cork by 40 minutes for cars, 45 minutes for busses, and 50 minutes for heavy goods vehicles. However, Cllr O’Donoghue is more concerned that the current designs will see Croom hurtling backwards to the dark old days of heavy traffic congestion.

The Independent Ireland councillor insists that the traffic infrastructure in Croom is not sufficient, with road widths too narrow to cope with the large trucks and tractors that will have nowhere else to go.

“There’s around 900 students in the secondary school. The national school is thriving as well. The hospital is absolutely flying it down there. Croom is only going one way and we are not going back to traffic bottlenecks with potential hazards,” Cllr O’Donoghue highlighted.

“Road Safety is what everybody is absolutely about. But how is it safe when two busses meet and one has to climb up on the footpath? That’s not road safety, but that is what we’re going to be faced with.

“We are talking about safety on the main road, but why then are we compromising the safety of anybody inside in the town? This is where you will have the pedestrians, this is where you will have the younger generation, this is where you will have the footfall. It’s narrow enough, at the best of times, so once the motorway is done, you will either avoid Croom altogether, or you will have to suffer,” he added.

When the Limerick Post previously contacted Limerick City and County Council for comment, it revealed that the L1478 Fanningstown Road to the north of Croom will not be closed as part of the N/M20 project and will be connected to the existing N20 national road providing direct connectivity with Limerick, Patrickswell, and Adare via the existing road network.

Mayor Moran will now review the concerns raised with him by Croom businesses and residents.