DIVINE INSPIRATION will be needed to help reduce the speed limit outside Ballycorick Church.
Fr Brendan Coyne is hoping Cllr Dinny Gould (IND) will be able to answer his prayers to improve road safety in Ballynacally.
In the middle of February, a serious accident occurred outside Ballycorick Church which prompted Fr Coyne to call on Cllr Gould to try bring about improvements.
Tabling the matter before a sitting of the West Clare Municipal District, Cllr Gould requested an assessment “at the request of Fr Brendan Coyne” regarding road safety conditions at Ballycorick Church. He said there was “speed concerns on approach to church from both sides with lack of public car parking”.
Senior executive engineer, Alan Kennelly advised, “Ballycorick Church is located just outside Ballynacally village on the R-473, a regionally important road. The speed limit at Ballycorick Church is 80 kmh-1. The speed limit was not altered by the recent speed limit review”.
He said, “The issue seems to be with speeding cars. The enforcement of speeding legislation is the responsibility of An Garda Síochána”. The senior engineer suggested. “Fr. Coyne could make a speed limit appeal but the speed limit at this location was not reduced as part of the recent speed limit review, so an appeal may not succeed. Clare County Council does not have plans to reduce the speed limit at Ballycorick, nor is it scheduled for a low-cost safety scheme. I suppose the argument is that the road is not inherently unsafe, if drivers stick to the speed limit. Once again, ensuring that drivers adhere to the speed limit is not within the gift of Clare County Council”.
Kennelly added, “An Garda Síochána collate information on roads where speeding is an issue and allocate enforcement resources (“Go-Safe” vans, etc.) accordingly. Go-Safe vans are possibly the most effective deterrent for speeding. Perhaps the matter might be raised with An Garda Síochána at local level in the first instance”.
With no car park, the safety risk is greater outside the church, Cllr Gould felt. He referred to the accident on February 23rd and aid, “we were lucky that nobody was killed”. He asked the Council to try erect signage of some sort to try reduce speeding from Ennis to Ballynacally.
In response, the senior engineer commented, “The speed limit is 80km/h and that is not going to change or certainly is not scheduled to change. It is a little outside the village seems to be the thing, road design say it is a regional road”. Cllr Gould replied, “They have no car park, they double park and are just flying off the road”.
Seconding the proposal, Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) said similar issues are occurring in North Clare. “We want a review of the speed limit there to see if it is appropriate for the density of traffic in the area, what is the mechanism for doing that”. Kennelly repeated his suggestion that a speed limit appeal be made by the local community.
Support for a change was also voiced by Cllr Michael Shannon (FF), “A lot of the churches, their designation has changed, a lot of funerals held at night time”.
Caution was issued by Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) on requesting Gardaí to do speed checks, “Gardaí will ticket the cars that are parked, every single car got a ticket in Kilrush a few weeks ago when they came out”.
