Letterkenny is not thriving but choking, a meeting of concerned residents in the town was told tonight.
The public meeting was called in the Oldtown area of the town to protest at what was described as the “traffic chaos in our town.”
Up to 150 people attended the meeting where petition forms were handed out calling on people throughout the town to come together in a bid to address various traffic issues in various parts of the town.
The meeting was called by local businesswoman and Aontu representative Mary T Sweeney.
Ms Sweeney said that all local county councillors had been invited to attend.
Among those present were 100% Redress Party TD Charles Ward as well as Councillors Tomas Sean Devine and Denis McGee.
There were also apologies read out on behalf of Councillors Michael McClafferty, Declan Meehan, Albert Doherty and Pauric McGarvey.
Also present were a number of local business owners and developers from the area.
Organiser Mary T Sweeney appealed to all concerned residents to come together and to sign petitions in their area highlighting the traffic issues locally which need to be addressed.
She urged people to come together as a unit.
She said she did not accept that there are not people with answers to Letterkenny’s traffic issues.
“The people that are failing us continuously are the members of Donegal County Council. There are people with degrees in design and road traffic management and I am not accepting that some of them are not capable of doing their work.
“So someone in council is dictating that they don’t get the right to put forward what they think will be sensible solutions.
“Either that or simply the wrong people are employed in the wrong jobs. That’s the reality of it.”
Deputy Charles Ward said that Letterkenny is not thriving, it is being choked.
“The character is gone from Letterkenny right now as we are speaking. The Main Street is choked to death. Traffic is coming in. They said that Letterkenny is thriving but it is not, it is being choked and it is being stifled.
“From October when the Christmas shopping starts, people are going into the North instead of coming into this town here.
“We have houses being built where they can’t manage the traffic. We have sewage systems that are backing up. We have water coming in that is either on or it is off.
“Lack of services in Letterkenny has been going on for years. I lived in Letterkenny for years and I worked in UNIFI and to see what’s happened to the town where we have a nice big roundabout out by UNIFI that’s absolutely need somewhere else.
“The Polestar Roundabout can’t take the traffic that’s currently on it. The businesses are suffering. When you come into the town when it’s business on a Saturday and you are at the Tinney Roundabout, you are there for forty minutes before you go into Tesco.”
Those who gathered heard how one local wheelchair user living in the Oldtown area was forced to cross the road at various points on his way to town each day because there were no footpaths in places.
Various locals suggested ways of improving the traffic flow in the town.
Local business owner John Anthony Mullen suggested that the new traffic lights at the Polestar Roundabout was the root cause of increased traffic congestion in the town.
He pleaded with Donegal County Council to consider turning off the lights for a period of one month as a trial to see if traffic flow improved again.
“Everybody in the county knows that the lights at the Polestar Roundabout are causing such havoc. Why can’t they just turn them off for a period of time. Give it a month and see does it make any difference?
“Because no matter what back road you travel on wether it is up towards the college, the Mountaintop, every single road is blocked because of the Polestar Roundabout.
“Look at nine o’clock in the morning, the traffic coming in from Derry is piled out the carriageway and can’t get in,” he said.
A further meeting is set to be organised locally to continue to highlight specific traffic issues facing the town.
“Letterkenny is not thriving, it’s choking,” hears public meeting to discuss town’s traffic woes was last modified: September 3rd, 2025 by Staff Writer
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