Waterford City and County Council have confirmed that a review of changes made to the Farronshoneen Roundabout is now underway.

The changes will be reviewed by a traffic strategic policy committee before coming back before the local authority.

The news comes as almost 1,800 people have signed a petition calling for an urgent review as a result of public safety concerns and traffic delays.

Fianna Fail Councillor Adam Wyse – who started the petition, says the changes have contradicted their initial purpose.

“I suppose it’s anger, but probably mainly frustration with the changes that were made. Now, there’s been a lot of positive changes made. It is a lot easier for cyclists and pedestrians to cross, but it is more difficult for vehicle users to get through that roundabout coming home from work or coming home from collecting kids from the school areas. My whole goal with this, and I believe the goal of the other councillors, was to try and come up with a solution that actually works best for everybody, which is very possible in other countries, but for some reason we can’t do it here. To see almost 2,000 people sign the petition, it shows the level of frustration that’s out there with regards to the changes that were made.”

“We are a city, we are going to have traffic issues”, Cllr. Wyse acknowledged. “My concern here is trying to make the roads as safe as possible and as user-friendly as possible. I believe that the changes that were made to the Farronshoneen Roundabout were made with the interest of making it safe – but I think having frustrated, angry, fed-up drivers on that roundabout doesn’t make it safe for pedestrians or for cyclists. In the last couple of weeks, I want to thank Sean McKeown, the CEO of Waterford Council, and his team, because they have agreed to undertake a review of the roundabout, which is what was the main goal of the petition in the first place.”

He told WLR that no one is against Active Travel schemes or increased cycle lanes, but a better balance needs to be achieved.

“I don’t want to see cycle lanes stopped. I don’t want to see traffic lights stopped. I don’t want to see cyclists put out at all. I said I actually want to make sure it’s as safe as possible for them. When we went over to Utrecht in Holland to see how they do it there, they showed us how to do it. It’s not the same plan that we’re doing here in Waterford. To me as a local councillor, my job is to ensure that the people get the very, very best. I don’t think that this roundabout is the very, very best. I think that’s quite clear.”

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