Pedestrian Dungarvan’s Grattan Square Is Not a Good Move For Everyone

You really have to hand it to the planner’s in Waterford City and County Council. Every so often they come up with some great ideas, ideas that hugely benefit the county.

In recent years a great deal of money was spent on developing the old Waterford to Dungarvan Railway Line, creating what we now know as ‘The Greenway’.

I have heard people give out about the money spent on the line in the recent years and have heard the same people claim that the council could well have spent the money that they put into the line in a much better way.

Many of these same people love to complain about everything, especially anything new. I would love to know what they think of ‘The Greenway’ now, what they think of the jobs it has created, the numbers of visitors it is bringing to the Dungarvan area in particular, and to all the wonderful comments first time visitors to mostly West Waterford are making about the town of Dungarvan and the areas around it. I suspect that if asked they would hold the same opinion, speaking to others anyway because some of these people would not want to give to say that they were wrong.

But not everything the planners have done in recent years could be described as a good idea.

Take Dungarvan’s Grattan Square for example. Many millions have been spent on it over the last few years. Yes I admit Dungarvan’s Grattan Square looks much brighter than it did a few short years ago, but was it a case of money well spent.

As a disabled person I would say no, the money was not well spent and I know that I am not the only disabled person to think this.

As someone that would regard Dungarvan as town, I would often visit it. My main business when i visit the town can be done in the Dungarvan Shopping Centre, but at times it often brings me out of the Shopping Centre and into the square in particular and the streets off it.

To me the surface of Grattan Square is a disaster to walk on if you are disabled or if you are not very mobile on your feet. I have seen comments left on my Facebook page when I make reference to the square and how dangerous it is, telling me that you should try and cross it in a wheelchair. As someone that gets by with the use of a pair of crutches and who has experience of using a wheelchair occasionally I can fully imagine how difficult it must be to get around Dungarvan and in particular the area around Grattan Square in a wheelchair.

To sum up Dungarvan’s Grattan Square, thanks to the planners who planned the changes made in recent years, even if it is looking more colourful, the area is an accident waiting to happen. Remember where you saw it first when something does happen.

I have in the last few weeks highlighted other dangerous areas around the town. I have for example highlighted the paving bricks which form the surface in what is often called the Plaza Car Park.

I am sure anyone who has eyes in their head and who uses the car park regularly will know only too well that the bricks just inside the main entrance to the car park have sunk and are starting to part. There is large gaps between some of the bricks and if someone was to walk across the them and a crutch or walking stick was to get caught between them the person using them risks getting badly hurt.

A person with a crutch or walking stick has some chance of maybe avoiding getting caught, but the same cannot be said maybe of someone using a white cane.

In the same car park the bricks in the area around the underground car park used by those living in the flats above it are also in a very dangerous state of repair and again someone is going to get seriously hurt in this area if they are not repair sooner rather than later.

Work has taken place to repair the bricks on Davitt’s Quay that were coming loose and the council deserves praise for this, but on the lanes coming off the quay leading to Main Street where there is bricks, some of them are in a very poor state of repair. Galwey’s Lane is an example where the brinks around the side of Ming’s Court Chinese Restaurant especially dangerous.

I know was told that some of these dangers were reported to Council Chiefs by a former employee who will remain nameless and a blind eye was turned to what was said. Why, I don’t know, but hopefully some or all of what is said here might be put to those in charge and the council will act before it’s too late.

The Dungarvan Leader this week has a worrying front page headline if you are disabled, and you have to wonder how much the planners are thinking.

I am aware with some time that the council are planning on closing off the Quay area of Dungarvan to traffic. This I understand is something that some Councillors have welcomed, something I am not shocked with because some councillors and indeed TD’s and Senators within the Déise County are very good at welcoming different things.

The Leader tells us that a section of the quay from the corner of Carberry’s Lane (i.e the corner of the Anchor Bar) to Thompson’s Lane (i.e. the corner of the Mooring’s Bar) is to be closed to Vehicular traffic from 3pm on Friday Evenings to 8am on Monday Mornings in the month of August.

Kevin Kirrane the journalist who wrote the piece tells us that Fergus Galvin (the Director of Services for Roads with Waterford City and County Council) didn’t need the approval of the elected councillors because the move was seen as a ‘temporary road closure’.

I hear you saying what’ his problem with this, after all it’s only a short section of the road, a few hundred metres. Well if you are disabled and in Dungarvan it makes a difference.

You see while that section of the road as i said is only a few hundred metres it contains two disabled parking bays, something which things stand are like hens teeth in Dungarvan. There are simply not enough of them as things stand, mostly because of the illegal use of the spaces, and if the council were to close off a few hundred metres of the road to traffic it will mean that Dungarvan is down two more Disabled Parking Bays.

 The Council in Waterford deserve great praise for the way they are getting people to visit Dungarvan, but if this new move comes into play and a section of road is closed off, the message to many disabled people in Dungarvan is that while most people are welcome to Dungarvan and the areas around it to use ‘The Greenway’ if you are disabled, then maybe you can do a little better than choose Dungarvan, because we don’t allow you to park with ease in the Town Centre.