Crawfordsburn Chaos

Crawfordsburn Chaos by Green Party MLA Brian WilsonStatement by Brian on the meeting arranged by Mayor Tony Hill with Roads Service and Crawfordsburn Inn to resolve the proposed disruption of Traffic through Crawfordsburn for the next 9 months as a result of the building works to be carried by Crawfordsburn Inn.

Brian states:

“The meeting was a complete waste of time. There was no flexibility or compromise shown by the developer. It is clear that the village and particularly the businesses within the village will suffer disruption for 39 weeks as the building work is carried out.”

Crawfordsburn at present suffers from regular traffic congestion and the introduction of traffic lights and a one way traffic system will make the situation intolerable.

It is clear that the Ballymullan Road will become a rat run as motorists try to avoid the lights although it is not designed to cope with such additional traffic. Children attending Crawfordsburn Primary School from the Helens Bay direction will have to travel along the A2 to avoid gridlock in the village. However the greatest impact will be on the businesses in the village which are largely dependent on through traffic. It is difficult to see how they can survive if for 9 months potential customers are forced to avoid the village by tailbacks caused by the traffic lights.

While significant disruption is inevitable given the building works at the Inn, I feel that greater consideration should have been given to the concerns and views of the residents and businesses in the village. I also believe that they should have been consulted before the decision was made to implement this 39 week disruption.
I have no doubt that this disruption could have been reduced if the management of the Inn had shown more flexibility in the carrying out of the building works. Indeed I believe that in such cases a development should have

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