This article is from page 11 of the 2006-04-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
KILRUSH Town Councillors may decide to ban HGVs from entering the town when the traffic management plan comes before them next month.
That was the warning from Kilrush Town and County Councillor Tom Prenderville who said Dublin took a similar decision after 19 people were killed by HGVs in the capital last year. He was speaking at a meeting where members of the HGV Action Group and Clare County Council disputed the number of heavy goods vehicles going through the town.
A special in-depth traffic management study by council officials showed that 30 HGVs with non-compliant loads passed through the town since February to the €350 million retrofit project in Moneypoint.
In total, there were 158 deliveries to the ESB plant in the two-month period, three more than planned. According to the report, the majority of the heavy loads accessed the town by the Killimer Ferry. Of the 113 that used the west Clare ferry, 23 came across the estuary during the week beginning April 4.
As many as 1,200 deliveries are expected to the ESB multi-million euro building project, the majority of the deliveries currently going to the site.
A total of 244 deliveries were made to the site during the first three months of this year, with 286 forecast for the second three months.
The second half of the year should see a marked reduction in deliveries to the site according to the report, with the traffic decreasing further in the remaining 18 months of the project.
Barry Copley, chairman of the local residents’ group, The HGV Action Group, said, however, that not all lorries are following the traffic management plan set out as part of the Retrofits planning permission conditions.
“I can categorically state that they are not taking the route you say they are taking,” he told council officials, adding that children’s lives are being put at risk as the lorries speed through residential areas.
The Senior Executive Engineer reassured the residents that any driver not complying with the guidelines set down by the council and the ESB are held on site for 24 hours without their vehicle being unloaded. This penalises the haulage company and sends a clear message, he said.
He also told the meeting that all vehicles leaving the project are required to go right when they go out the gate.