Cork County Council to explore funding first section of Bantry bypass

Officials will approach the Department of Transport about advancing a section from Newtown to Hospital Cross that already has planning approval

Independent Ireland councillor Danny Collins urged officials to seek Department of Transport funding for a link from Newtown to Hospital Cross, rather than wait for the full bypass to proceed. File picture

Cork County Council is to explore funding for the first section of the Bantry bypass after renewed calls to ease traffic congestion in the town.

Independent Ireland councillor Danny Collins urged officials to seek Department of Transport funding for a link from Newtown to Hospital Cross, rather than wait for the full bypass to proceed. The council’s director of services for roads and transport, Pádraig Barrett, agreed to discuss the proposal with the department.

Cllr Collins told the Western Division committee that the first section would remove a significant amount of traffic from the town. He described a recent incident in which two trucks became stuck on a town centre street, mounting the footpaths and forcing pedestrians to take shelter in doorways.

Cllr Collins said he had raised the bypass at a meeting with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) in Dublin several months earlier. He said a TII representative subsequently suggested that Department of Transport funding might offer a way to progress the first section.

He warned that waiting for the entire bypass could mean decades of further delay. Cllr Collins said considerable work had already been done on the initial section and urged the council to pursue a way to deliver it.

Fianna Fáil councillor George Gill supported the call, saying discussions had continued for years and that progressing even one section would get the project moving.

Mr Barrett said TII’s concern was to ensure that any section built would fit with the overall bypass. He said the council was working to align the section already designed, and for which land had been secured, with the wider scheme.

Mr Barrett agreed to approach the Department of Transport about how the section with planning approval could be brought forward.

The council’s written roads report lists a €100,000 allocation for the Bantry bypass in 2026. It says preliminary discussions with TII have established that an overall bypass route will be required to ensure continued funding from the agency.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.