WEST Tyrone councillor, Pat McDonnell, has suggested that the current scheme by Omagh District Council to erect signposts for local roads with the townland as a subscript should be extended to cover townlands 'lost' by the postal road names.

"While I will never be happy with the fact that so many local authorities acquiesced to the road names scheme, I would accept that the current project being rolled out by the Council has brought a number of townland names back into currency. However, there are still many townlands not featured on any sign. For example, Caroney -a townland of the Parish of Langfield- is still 'lost' to public consciousness.

He continued, "Caroney can be accessed via the Manse Road but fails to appear on either of the signs at the two ends of that road. In the same parish, many of the lovely placenames of the Glen Road fail to appear on the new signage. How could the traveller at Dooish Cross fathom the way to places like Cooel and Carrick and Gortnasoal and Carrickbwee and Annaghalough? Likewise for the scenic and atmospheric area around Lough Bradan. There are many other examples across the district.

SIGNAGE

"I will be asking the Council to engage in a further piece of signage work in order to rescue these lost and lovely names. In the meantime, we can all contribute to this unique part of our heritage by insisting on the use of the townland name in our addresses.

"I would particularly appeal to our schools to gently insist that the pupil's townland be an intrinsic part of the address on the school's datebase."