Solution sought to ease 'horrendous' Buncrana traffic congestion

Donegal County Councillor Rena Donaghey was speaking at this week’s Inishowen Municipal District meeting, which was held remotely due to the inclement weather, at which she outlined how Buncrana town centre is ‘choked down’ with traffic ‘nearly all the time.’

Councillor Donaghey suggested that Donegal County Council purchase land in the town to create another exit and ease the traffic flow, which, she added, is not able to move freely.

The Fianna Fail councillor said: “The traffic in Buncrana, as you’d expect, was very strong and thick around Christmas, which was good to see. But, we really need to look at that inner relief road, from the lights at Cockhill road out the other side of Buncrana, past Lidl and Aldi, as Buncrana town is choked down with traffic now nearly all the time.

"It’s great to see extra people, but we need to be able to accommodate that and let the traffic flow freely. We need to start looking. The bottom line is, we need to purchase land between Kearney’s Pass, on the Cockhill road and Rockytown. It’s not that huge of an area, but it could make a huge difference to traffic flow in Buncrana. We are the second biggest town in the county and our traffic is horrendous at the minute.’.

Councillors have previously spoken of how, at various stages throughout the day and particularly at weekends, traffic can be backed up from main street to Westbrook Bridge and beyond.