BY AUSTIN LYNCH

Driving through Enniskillen has become something of a nightmare of late.

Whether you are trying to get into town, go through the town centre or just drive around the town from one place to another chances are, you are going to get stuck in a traffic jam.

In actual fact it doesn't seem to matter where you're going to or coming from, or how well you know the shortcuts, your journey is going to take longer than usual.

At the moment, there is a lot of development work going on in Enniskillen and it appears the roadworks connected with these developments, at Gaol Square and at the Erneside roundabout, are partly to blame for the gridlock.

The traffic situation is so bad in the town that it prompted Belfast man Alan Herbert, who was trying to get through the town last Wednesday, to ring the 'Herald' just to let us know how bad the traffic situation is.

"The traffic in this town has gone mad. The town is getting crucified at the moment with this traffic and there doesn't seem to be anybody out there doing anything about it," he said.

Alan explained that, on Wednesday, he was on his way through Enniskillen heading for Irvinestown, a journey he makes once every five or six weeks, when he encountered 'the worst traffic I have ever come across': "And this isn't even a busy time", he added.

He was left sitting stationary in his car for well over half an hour coming in the Belfast road into town and, at no point, did he see anyone attempting to alleviate the problem.

"This has cost me a lot of frustration. Does nobody have the foresight to have some plan better than this?", he complained.

Alan prefaced his remarks by declaring that Enniskillen is a 'lovely town' but he just felt that more could be done to keep the traffic moving, even if it meant having police, or traffic wardens out observing what was going on and stepping in when necessary to keep the traffic moving.

But, despite the traffic chaos that so many people have been experiencing over the past few weeks. Inspector Morton at Enniskillen Police Station told the 'Herald' that the Station hadn't received any specific complaints about the traffic from members of the public.

He revealed there were officers down at the Gaol Square junction early in the morning and in the evening time, before nine and after five o'clock, but he went on to say that unless the police get a report that the traffic is badly built up, or officers on the beat see it for themselves, then they wouldn't be out on point duty.

"We accept", he went on," that the roadworks are going to be there for a little while, and if a build up of traffic is reported to us, then we will send officers down to try and help the situation," he proimised.

Commenting on the ongoing roadworks around the town, Henry Robinson, from the Roads Service, reported that things are on schedule and that the two major sets of roadworks going on around the town were 'moving swiftly'.

Talking specifically about the roadworks at Erneside roundabout, Mr Robinson said his Team hoped to be pouring the concrete this week. He explained that the road was going to be raised up and would be reinforced, sitting on top of a concrete deck.

"This 12 week programme", he stated, "is on schedule and work here is to be completed by the end of June."

Its completion will create a new road layout into a new roundabout providing access not only to Erneside Shopping Centre but to the new Asda store which is currently under construction.

Regarding the Gaol Square roadworks, Mr Robinson explained that a lot of hidden work, and delicate work, was being completed at present, with the placing of sockets for traffic lights and the creation and positioning of new traffic islands.

By yesterday (Tuesday) he hoped the white lining gang would have moved in.

What is being created here is a four-way signalised junction with phased signals. "The whole area will be utilised with people able to drive straight through the junction. We expect work to be completed here by early July".

As far as the work at Gaol Square is concerned this work is entirely funded by Asda, while the work at Erneside is jointly funded by the Roads Service and Asda.

"We realise this work is causing a lot of hardship for people at the moment, and we do apologise for the disruption caused (to motorists) but hopefully things will look much brighter in the near future," said Henry Robinson.