'Someone will be killed' if Coosan road safety isn't improved

An Athlone councillor said he fears there will be a fatality on the road to the popular Coosan Point amenity unless work is carried out to improve safety for pedestrians and motorists.

The matter was raised by Cllr Jamie Moran at a meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District this month, and in response the local authority said it would need to acquire a "substantial" amount of land in order to redevelop the road by installing footpaths between Coosan cemetery and Coosan Point.

Cllr Moran said a number of local residents had been in touch with him to express their concerns about the busy road.

"There has been a number of crashes… there's going to be someone killed on that road, with the speed they're going up and down from the school to Coosan Point itself," he said.

"There's a footpath from (Coosan) Church to the school, but from there onwards there's nothing at all."

His motion was supported by the other councillors, with Cllr Frankie Keena suggesting "a complete survey of the road" should be carried out.

"The (council's) engineering section has agreed to take a look at various pinch points, and see what can be done, but there is a need for local property owners to come on board as well to create better sightlines, and that type of thing," said Cllr Keena.

Cllr Aengus O'Rourke said the road was carrying a lot of traffic and he pointed out that the new national headquarters for the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland, as well as the upgraded base for the Lough Ree RNLI lifeboat, were now located in the area also.

"The ideal would be that we would have some kind of segregated pathway or cycleway to allow people to safely get from Coosan Church, or the graveyard, all the way to Coosan Point," he said.

Cllr Louise Heavin said the Coosan Point road would be an ideal project for examination by a new 'Active Travel' design team which was being established with a focus on Athlone and Mullingar.

Meanwhile, Cllr John Dolan told the meeting he was born in Coosan and that, although Coosan Point had long been popular with visitors, it had only gotten busier in recent years.

"There has to be something done with the road, but I suppose the first thing to do would be to find out the facts, and the way to do that is probably with a traffic survey," he said.

The council's written response to Cllr Moran's motion stated that District Engineer Pat Nally would arrange for an inspection of the road to be carried out.

"There is a footpath in place from the Church to the school, and the road was recently resurfaced.

"To provide similar infrastructure between the school and Coosan Point would require substantial land acquisition, given the width of the existing road, and a source of funding would have to be identified," said the local authority.

PHOTO: Cllr Jamie Moran pictured at Coosan Point.