This article is from page 6 of the 2006-03-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
COUNCIL officials came under fire yesterday from councillors in the Ennis electoral area, over the poor condition of the town’s roads and footpaths. Councillors took the opportunity at yesterday’s Ennis electoral area meeting to grill senior engineering staff over a number of issues relating to roads in and around the Ennis area.
In total, councillors submitted six submissions concerning road conditions in the county capital with the issue of a footpath for the Quin Road high on the agenda.
Responding to a motion submitted by Councillor Joe Carey (FG), Senior Executive Engineer, Hugh McGrath, confirmed that construction work on a footpath that would connect the Quin Road with the Bruach na hAbhainn housing estate, would be completed in a number of weeks.
But he was unable to say when suitable pedestrian access would be provided over the railway, which was now an issue for the road design office of Clare County Council.
This prompted sceptical remarks from councillors who said that the issue had been shelved for too long.
“We seem to be welcoming this work for a long time now, I thought we were looking at this to be done last year,” said Cllr Peter Considine (FF) who added that the road design office “wasn’t the safest place to leave the proposal”. Cllr Sonny Scanlon (FG) commented that the situation was “frightening” given the amount of people that used the bridge over the railway line. Mr McGrath said that the council was considering a number of proposals including the construction of a stand alone foot bridge.
There was also heated debate over the condition of the Ballybeg road with councillors demanding to know why the situation regarding the installation of a sewerage pipe had yet to be addressed. Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) accused the council of refusing to meet with developers to reach a compromise over the installation of the pipe.
“It’s been thrown around like snuff at a wake. Someone from either Ennis Town Council or Clare County Council needs to bring the developers together. No one wants to take a decision,” he said.
This was refuted by Mr McGrath who confirmed that €300,000 had been set aside for development work on the road, which would only begin once the final stage of the sewerage scheme had been completed for which additional funding might be required.
He added that a structural review of roads in the Ennis area would take place once work on the Ennis bypass was completed.