A26 safety concerns aired with Kennedy

The face-to-face meeting with Danny Kennedy was called for by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council to discuss road issues and a number of key transport routes across the borough including the A8 at Larne, the A2 Shore Road project at Carrick and also rail provision at Whitehead and The Gobbins.

Updating last week’s June monthly Council meeting on the ministerial forum, Councillor Tommy Nicholl said he had asked Danny Kennedy to “look very seriously” at the A26 Woodgreen Junction and also to consider traffic speed when undertaking a review of safety along the route.

“I have no doubt that he’ll come back after seriously looking at it,” Councillor Nicholl told the meeting, adding: “He (the Minister) proved to the delegation his honesty and straightforwardness.”

The busy section of the A26 between Antrim and Ballymena, known locally as ‘the Antrim line’, has been the scene of numerous road traffic accidents over a long number of years.

Back in February, politicians called for a full safety review of the road after an Ahoghill woman lost her life in a two-vehicle crash at Woodgreen.

Councillor Beth Adger, who lives along the route, had asked that the delegation raise the issue of traffic speed on the A26 with the Minister and call on him to consider introducing a speed limit change, in particular at the Woodgreen junction.

Deputy Mayor Councillor Timothy Gaston described the meeting as “very useful” and said the Minister had demonstrated he was “very supportive of Council’s priority of growing the local economy”.

Councillors were also told that Minister Kennedy had agreed to a further meeting with them in six months’ time.