*Johnny Flynn. Photograph: Eamon Ward
A FORMER two-time Mayor of Ennis has launched a strong criticism of the draft Ennis local transport plan describing it as “anti-car” while warning Clare County Council could undermine public confidence in its planning system.
Johnny Flynn resigned from his membership of Fine Gael last May and had announced in a Clare Echo exclusive last February that he would not be seeking re-election to Clare County Council.
Since his exit from politics, Flynn has been actively involved with Save Ennis Town who have opposed some aspects of the Ennis 2040 strategy, most notably plans to build on the riverside car parks of Abbey Street and Parnell Street.
In a submission to the draft Ennis local transport plan, Johnny said it constituted a “very serious and detrimental transport public policy due to the fact in the main the proposals within the LTP are those that wish to transform transport in and around the market provincial town of Ennis by private vehicles as the lowest priority with cycling and cycleways given priority”.
According to the civil engineer, “This detrimental prioritisation of cycling will result in wasteful use of scarce public funds and disruptive roadworks when we know from page 226 of the May 2021 published Ennis 2040 Strategy that only 2% of trips in Ennis are bicycles and have observed little use of existing cycleways developed in and around Ennis over the last decade”.
He welcomed the fruition of work over years which will have the Ennis Town Bus service which will operate two routes for eighteen hours daily once running by year end.
Documents which influenced the formulation of the transport plan “appear to have been developed at the wishes of a Green Party and its Ministers within the previous government,” he claimed. Such “pro cycling documents” are “more appropriate to a city setting and not a provincial market town like Ennis where we know 77% of customers travel in by car. I believe there is a distinct anti car approach driving the proposals in the LTP. I have been and am an advocate for realistic sustainable travel for a town like Ennis where the bulk of employees and customers are living in the outer suburbs or in the rural hinterland. My support of Sustainable travel options can as witnessed by one of my first requests of Ennis Town Council on my election in 2004 to start the process of developing a Town Bus service. It has taken too long”.
Cycle priority proposals within the plan “are at odds with previous traffic, parking and transportation reports commissioned by the former Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council,” the Tulla Rd resident stated.
Parking and traffic flow statements which the transport plan are based on are from “skewed 2023 parking and traffic figures which were heavily influenced by effective closure of Ennis by and during Covid as against the actual transport pre-COVID figures for the town,” Flynn stated.
A surplus of unused carparking is referred to in the transport plan from 2023 “when the town was closed by the Council during COVID and public realm works being carried out in Parnell Street and 29 lanes and bow-ways. The correct Pre Covid levels of town Centre activity and the actual parking deficit of 600 parking spaces was identified in the Council’s own 2017 Ennis Parking report sent to the Mayor and elected members. The LTP completely ignores this”.
Commitments to develop or acquire sites to provide a minimum of 100 off-street car parking spaces within two years were made in the 2017 report. The Council had also said it would engage with the private sector and examine a number of models with a view to achieving a target of 500 additional off street car parking spaces in the next five years. Flynn flagged that in the region of 250 public car parking spaces “have been removed by the Council with various works over the last decade and have not been replaced”.
On the subject of pedestrianisation, he said a non-statutory survey carried out by the Council is referred to but no record of 150 submissions seeking for the reopening of O’Connell Street.
Businesses will experience unnecessary disruption due to the LPT, he argued. “From preliminary reading of the LTP the Council want to rip up roads, roundabouts and remove cars from streets for cycling. The current draft LTP proposals are completely cycleway development orientated and gives no weight in its considerations on traffic impact, customer access nor to the negative impact on commercial activity of existing ratepayers to retain employees or pay rates . The LTP in its current version will mean massive unnecessary disruptions to road network and further crazy waste of taxpayers money trying to satisfy the needs of only 2% users of our roads”.
Essential investment flagged by Flynn includes the construction of “the promised” multi-storey car park by the Temple Gate, construction of 550 park and ride parking spaces, a Quin Rd connection to the M18, a connection from Gort Rd to Roslevan Shopping Centre but not through Oakleigh Woods, a Quin Rd to N85 connection at Skehanagh, a connection between the Quin Rd and Clonroad, an upgrade solution for the junction at Shanaway Rd, a connection between Lahinch Rd and Gort Rd plus a pedestrian footbridge at Drehidnagower Bridge. He asked that references to Ennis 2040 projects on Abbey St, Parnell St and the Post Office field be removed from the plan along with removal of plans to reduce two lane access/exit from existing roundabouts and the proposed one-way plan for Mill Rd.
In his concluding remarks, Flynn warned confidence in the planning system could be undermined if traffic does not return to O’Connell Street. “Part 8 Planning permission was granted , without a single objection from a business or individual for the public realm upgrades to O Connell St, The Square , The Height and Bank Place because the application stated one-way traffic would return to O Connell St. Proposed closure of O Connell St in the LTP based on an or any non-statutory form of consultation by executive order would seriously undermine public confidence in the Statutory Part 8 Planning system used by Clare County Council”.
