North-east Cork village to get speed limit for the first time

A village with a school, a church, a parish hall, several business, and up to 30 houses is to be regulated by a speed limit — for the first time.

A council engineer said the discrepancy in Bartlemy, a village near Rathcormac in north-east Cork, had been “discovered by accident”.

The speed limit oversight emerged as county councillors discussed a revision of speed signs in nearby towns such as Fermoy.

Council engineer Brendan O’Gorman said he came across the discrepancy by accident and was surprised there was no speed limit in the village, especially as it had a national school, a church and other amenities.

The disclosure came at the Fermoy municipal Authority meeting.

Officials, meanwhile, rejected calls to introduce a 30kph speed limit in Fermoy town centre from MacCurtain St to Pearse Square over Thomas Kent Bridge and up to Brian Boru Square.

However, Mr O’Gorman said this was not recommended as speed limit guidelines state the 30kph limit should only be introduced to roads with no strategic importance and, therefore, should not be applied to Fermoy as the route through the town was designated as a national secondary.

He said, in exceptional circumstances, it could be applied but would require the consent of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).

However, it was highly unlikely the TII would give permission for such a proposal in Fermoy

Mr O’Gorman said that he believed if implemented it would lead to further congestion and pedestrians could put their lives at risk weaving in and out of slow-moving traffic.

Meanwhile, Mr O’Gorman ruled out, for nighttime noise reasons, speed ramps in Watergrasshill as councillor June Murphy said she had received complaints about speeding.