Thurles Councillors have agreed to request an urgent meeting with the Transport Minister to discuss prioritising a by-pass for the town.
Independent Jim Ryan tabled a motion at the monthly Municipal District meeting of the council.
It follows ongoing traffic issues in and around Liberty Square and the recent death of a pedestrian who was hit by a lorry.
Cllr Ryan says the heavy traffic is damaging buildings and cars as well as costing local lives.
“Numerous deaths and injuries and most tragically we had another one recently. We have noise pollution, air pollution, there’s buildings being damaged in Thurles because of articulated lorries banging against them in the narrow streets. There’s cars and vehicles that are parked being damaged by Heavy Goods Vehicles so it’s a necessity. People are sick of the traffic jams, people are sick of us coming up with excuse after excuse.”
The Thurles By-pass project is not currently a part of the governments National Development Plan.
Cllr Ryan is set to ask the Transport Minister how many deaths it will take before Thurles gets a by-pass.
“Unfortunately we had a tragic death recently. Over the last 20 or 30 years we’ve had four pedestrians knocked down and killed in Thurles town centre. So it’s a health and safety issue and as I said previously how many more deaths are going to take place in Thurles until someone listens to us and gives us the go-ahead for the bypass project for Thurles. That’s the stark reality that we’re facing.”
