Sligo Town has been plunged back into the bad old days, with the town once again suffering from chaotic traffic jams on a daily basis, due entirely to Sligo Borough Council's stupid idea to pedestrianise the towns main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street.

In the very recent past, the streets of Sligo Town were absolutely choked with traffic, to the point of total gridlock, which could at times mean a simple journey from one side of the town to the other could take as much as an hour.

Sligo Borough Council were constantly under attack from motorists who were quite rightly furious over the traffic problems, until September 2005 when Sligo's saving grace, the Inner Refeif Road finally opened for traffic.

The Inner Relief Road is a €73 million four-lane dual carriageway which runs from Carraroe to the Bundoran Road.

This long-awaited road took all the traffic entering Sligo Town from the Dublin direction and from the Donegal direction, and channelled them close to the centre of Sligo Town, without having them enter the town centre and clogging up the towns streets, unless they wanted to go into Sligo Town centre.

With the opening of the Inner Releif Route, Sligo's traffic problems were solved practically overnight, obviously there were a few teething problems, but the chaotic traffic jams which had plagued Sligo Town for decades, had finally ceased to exist.

Now, Sligo Borough Council have, in all their misguided wisdom, pedestrianised O'Connell Street, Sligo's busiest street for traffic, forcing all the traffic which would otherwise have used O'Connell Street, to go up John Street and onto either Adelaide Street, or the new Inner Releif Route, clogging up every main arteiry on the west side of Sligo Town.

Sligo Borough Council are now deliberately directing ALL of Sligo's traffic onto the Inner Releif Road, the road which undoubtedly solved Sligo's traffic problems, making it resemble a car park, with two lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic at a standstill, from the stretch of the dual carriageway adjacent to Adelaide Street, right out over half a mile to the Caltragh Interchange.

Since the pedestrianisation of O'Connell Street, the local newspapers, The Sligo Champion and The Sligo Weekender and the local radio station Ocean FM have, since the first week of the Pedestrianisation of O'Connell Street, been running regular stories bemoaning the traffic problems and their very obvious causes in Sligo Town centre.

I have personally met only one person who is in favour of the new arrangements, everyone else, from motorists to pedestrians to local traders are totally opposed to the pedestrianisation of O'Connell Street, not so much for the fact of the street being pedestrianised, but because of all featured reports and/or debates and complaints from members of the public and local politicians, concerning the traffic chaos being caused as a direct result of the pedestrianisation of O'Connell Street, but to no avail.

Sligo Borough Council undoubtedly know they have made a big mistake, but rather than back down and admit it, losing face in the process, they remain adamant that they will not re-open O'Connell Street and have instead spent large amounts of taxpayers money on erecting new road signs and issueing maps to help motorists find their way through Sligo's maze of new one-way streets instead.

Click Here to download a copy of Sligo Borough Council's, Sligo Driving Map.

Last Modified Thursday, 20-Dec-2007 21:57:29 GMT.