This article is from page 17 of the 2014-01-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
THERE was mixed feelings towards the € 13 million allocated for the upkeep, improvements and general works on Clare’s regional and local roads this year.
The Government approved fund to Clare County Council, Kilrush Town Council and Ennis Town Council was down by € 2 million on last year, which is ultimately bad news for rural roads impacted upon by the storms and heavy rain of recent months.
Clare County Council is to receive just under € 12 million with the Ennis authority to receive € 339,200 and Kilrush to be allocated € 115,000.
Members of Clare County Council have criticised the funding reduction claiming it has “drastically reduced” the council’s ability to carry out basic road maintenance work such as road surfacing, hedge cutting, and road drainage clearing.
Ennis West Councillor Tom McNamara (FF) said the council was fighting a losing battle. “Rather than being financed sufficiently to maintain local and regional roads they have to focus maintenance on the most travelled roads only,” he said.
It wasn’t all bad news from his point of view however with € 50,000 allocated to Connolly.
There was also some good news for motorists using the R474 between Ennis and Miltown Malbay and the much-publicised Kilkee to Loop Head Road.
The maintenance of the later is essential to the Wild Atlantic Way route to begin later this year.
Meanwhile in East Clare there was unease that a project that is not scheduled to begin for at least another decade was again awarded funding from the council coffers.
“It is very frustrating that the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport have again made a substantial fund allocation to the Limerick Northern Distributor Road (LNDR) project,” said Cllr Cathal Crowe.
“The € 140,000 allocated towards the advancement of the Limerick Northern Distributor Road is, in my view, a shameful waste of taxpayer’s money at a time when funding to our county’s existing roads network has been savagely cut.”
In 2013 € 300,000 was allocated from the fund to the project that is meeting with resistance locally.
“If precedence is followed the € 140,000 allocated last week will be channelled into the surveying of the route line and volumes of paperwork which, to date, the public have been denied access to,” said the local councillor.