Dundalk Fire Service were called to the Applegreen Service Station on the M1 motorway this morning to deal with a car fire.
The alarm was around 9.45am when a car caught fire in the car park of the Southbound Castlebellingham station.
Two units of the fire service quickly brought the blaze under control.
The cause of the fire is, as yet, unknown but thankfully there were no injuries sustained in the incident.
Anyone with information on it is asked to contact Dundalk Garda Station.
The scene on the link road off the M1 at Ardee
While snow has yet to fall to any great degree in Dundalk, it is causing problems on the M1 motorway.
Ardee, Dunleer and Monasterboice are amongst the worst affected areas and motorists are urged to drive with caution both on the motorway and on other affected routes.
Cllr Tomás Sharkey
Louth County Councillor Tomás Sharkey has claimed that yesterday morning’s icy road conditions had been badly handled by the local authority.
There were a number of minor incidents on local roads yesterday as temperatures plumetted with Cllr Sharkey insisting that the reduction in road gritters was a major factor.
Although outside of council control, there were nine road accidents reported on the M1 motorway yesterday morning – five north of Dundalk and four near Drogheda. A man also remains in a critical but stable condition following a crash at Muchgrange in Carlingford on Friday night while there was also a single vehicle accident near Fitzpatrick’s pub at Rockmarshall last night.
With temperatures again low last night and expected to plummet even further tonight, road users are urged to be cautious once more.
However, Cllr Sharkey feels cost cutting within the council hasn’t helped the situation.
“Some months ago Louth Councty Council management informed us that they were cutting the fleet of gritting appliances from 7 to 4. They claimed the same amount of roads as last year would be gritted in the same amount of time but with nearly half the appliances. They also claimed that this would save €180,000.
“The morning of the 27th December has proven that the new arrangement is a failure and is putting lives at risk. I understand that the routes to be gritted cannot and are not being gritted in the appropriate period of time. I also understand that there is a knock on effect on the M1 motorway in Louth because a contractor tasked with that motorway is also drafted in to help grit regional and county roads, thus overstretching the service.
“Not only did the team of Sinn Fein Councillors in Louth object to this new arrangement when it was first announced, I tried to quiz management on its failings at the December monthly council meeting and have been requesting clarification from customer services in the council. I have received no clarification but will be raising it again,” said the Sinn Féin representative.
Louth has emerged as the country’s speeding blackspot, with 95% of all motorists nationally who were driving over the limit in 120km/h zones over a four-year period detected in the county.
According to figures provided by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, the Wee County accounted for 95% of all motorists nationwide caught speeding in a zone with a limit of 120km/h between November 2010 and February 2014.
In data supplied to Fine Gael TD Patrick O’Donovan, Minister Fitzgerald confirmed that Louth recorded a whopping 7,077 detections out of a nationwide figure of 9,482.
The next highest was Dublin (790), Longford (872) and Kildare (261).
Cork has the highest number of detections (16,280) in zones with 100km/h limit, followed by Wicklow (11,991) and Meath (10,597), Clare (7,207) and Dublin (5,272).
Dublin is the most ticketed area in the country for speeding, with 172,309 tickets for speeding in a 60km/h zone and 143,344 in a 50km/h zone.
The next nearest county for the issue of fines in a 60km/h zone is Limerick at 15,876 and Cork in a 50km/h zone with 37,066.
The detections were made by the 50-strong Go Safe vans and the gardaí’s own eight Gatso vans over the period.
The Go Safe vans, which do not patrol motorways for speeding, have produced €18.9m in revenues from fines and the minister said that the income “is retained and offset against the cost of the safety camera contract”.
The Go Safe consortium secured the €80m Garda contract in 2009 and was recording operating profits of around €50,000 per week in 2012.
However, the consortium has since put its profits off limits by re-registering as an unlimited company where it is no longer required to file annual accounts.
The firm’s operation has come under scrutiny in recent months, with district court judges in Clare and Monaghan throwing out en masse Go Safe speeding prosecutions.
AA director of corporate affairs, Conor Faughnan, said: “The bar stool view is the speeding van system is all a racket, but we have done systematic research to find that this is not the case.”
He said: “As far as we are concerned, Go Safe is performing very, very well and it does save lives. Go Safe is supported by around 80% of Irish motorists who believe that the system does make Irish roads safer, but you have a cohort of 10% or 12% who think differently.”
Mr Faughnan said that the figures relating to Louth “don’t indicate that local driver behaviour is bad, but that Louth may be a victim of geography with two major roads, the M1 and M3 going through it.”
Source: Irish Examiner
Two cubes of oil laundering waste that were dumped at Stephenstown Pond last month. A further four were discovered there this morning.
Two further quantities of oil laundering waste have been discovered in the area in the last 24 hours.
It follows the discovery of 45,000 litres of the toxic sludge that was dumped on a lay-by on the M1 northbound, near to junction 20 Jonesborough and the Carrickdale Hotel on Wednesday – the largest incident recorded this year.
Yesterday evening a further 3,000 litres of the toxic waste was discovered yesterday evening in the Annies area of Kilcurry while this morning 4,000 litres of the waste was discovered at Stephenstown Pond in Knockbridge – an area that is becoming increasingly popular for the dumping of the cubes.
Louth County Council have hired a contractor to deal with the issue but at great expense to taxpayers.
Anyone who noticed anything suspicious in these areas in the last 24 hours is asked to contact their local Garda Station or Louth County Council.
One of the largest quantities of diesel oil laundering sludge has been discovered in the north of the county.
45,000 litres of the toxic waste was dumped on a lay-by on the M1 northbound, near to junction 20 Jonesborough and the Carrickdale Hotel.
Louth County Council are dealing with the problem, the latest in a series of dumps throughout the last few years.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact the council or their local Garda Station.
The R166 Station Road from Castlebellingham to Tallanstown will close to the public this Monday for a period of six weeks to facilitate construction works.
The road will be closed from junction 15 on the M1 to its junction with the R132 in Castlebellingham village.
It will close at 6pm on Monday and is expected to reopen on Friday November 21st.
Diversion routes will be in place and Louth County Council has apologised for any inconvenience caused by the necessary works.
Two local crèches have offered to come to the aid of parents affected by the impending closure of the Ages and Stages Early Years Centre in Mullaharlin Park.
It was revealed yesterday that the crèche off the Dublin Road would be closing its doors on Friday August 29th.
That has sparked fears amongst parents about what will happen with their children after that while staff are also facing an uncertain future regarding their job status.
However, commenting on the Talk of the Town Facebook page this morning, Ciara Byrne of the Pugwash Bay crèche encouraged those affected to get in touch with her.
She said: “Parents and staff please contact me on 0429338055. I am the manager of Pugwash Bay crèche and Montessori based in Dundalk . We may be able to help you guys out.”
Mandy Stevenson from the Redeemer crèche in Ashling Park has also extended an olive branch to affected parents.
She emailed Talk of the Town to say: “I am the chairperson of Redeemer board. I was shocked to hear the news regarding the closure of Ages and Stages creche.
“We are a community creche in Redeemer and are willing to support parents with places for their children. My contact details are 0871351413.”
Claire Woods of Louth Childcare also added: “Support for Parents is available from Louth County Childcare Committee in seeking alternative childcare arrangements. Please contact us on 042 9336364 or visit our website www.louthchildcare.ie.”
Staff, parents and children involved with the local Ages and Stages Early Years Centre were dealt a devastating blow yesterday after it was announced that the crèche would close its doors at the end of this month.
The facility at Mullaharlin Park, off the Dublin Road, has been open for 20 years having initially started out in Dundalk Resource Centre. It only relocated to Mullaharlin Park in November 2008 following funding for a new centre from Pobal, ICTU, NDP, DSP, Louth County Council and the Louth County Childcare Committee.
Catering for children from six months to six years of age, it has been a hugely popular place in recent years. Now though it is set to close its doors from Friday August 29th.
One worried parent contacted Talk of the Town about Ages and Stages this morning, expressing concern at where she and other parents would find a replacement facility for children at such short notice.
Describing the news as “devastating”, she said: “I picked up my daughter from crèche yesterday evening only to be handed a letter by a young girl in tears informing me the crèche would be closing within two weeks and I would need to make alternative childcare arrangements as soon as possible, it came as such a shock!
“They’re such lovely girls in there and have built up such an amazing bond with my little girl, I don’t know where I’m going to start to find somewhere else as good.
“Apparently this is due to both lack of funding and lack of take up in childcare places. I can’t understand it though as this crèche is heavily funded by Pobal and is in an ideal catchment area located beside DKIT and only 5 minutes from Blackrock and the M1.
“I was so disappointed that given the circumstances management were not available to speak with parents and not on hand to deliver the news in person.
“I’m not sure if anything can be done to save it but I thought even just raising awareness might help.”
As well as the inconvenience and stress caused for parents by the closure, it is believed that more than a dozen staff will be out of jobs if the crèche does close its doors.
Are you affected by the closure or have your children used the facility? Let us know your thoughts!
Gardaí in Ardee are investigating a reported hit and run just off the M1 motorway last night.
The incident happened on a link road between the M1 and Drumcar around 11pm, with four people removed to hospital following the collision.
Drogheda Fire Service were called to the scene and had to use cutting equipment to remove the roof of the car in order to free two of the four occupants.
None of the injuries are said to be life-threatening but Gardaí are anxious to determine whether or not another car was involved.
Anyone with information on the matter is asked to contact Ardee Garda Station.
Talk of the Town 