*Cllr Michael Shannon (FF) has called for an increase in the budget allocation for public lighting in West Clare. Photograph: John Mangan.
PUBLIC LIGHTING in North and West Clare has been described as a hot potato election item which has since gone cold.
Elected members of the West Clare Municipal District have struggled despite repeated attempts to increase the amount of public lighting in different parts of the vast area of the county.
At the most recent sitting of the West Clare MD, three motions were tabled by councillors on the subject.
Cllr Dinny Gould (IND) sought a review of the public lighting outside Kilmurry McMahon parish and said the “current lighting is not adequate”. Cllr Michael Shannon (FF) called for an increase in the budget allocation for public lighting across West Clare and Cllr Shane Talty (FF) requested the installation of a streetlight along the bridge in Inagh “for the safety of pedestrians walking between the two sides of the village”.
Senior executive engineer Alan Kennelly in response to Cllr Gould advised that the direction from the roads and transporation department of the Council is “that for road and traffic safety reasons, new public lighting columns are not provided outside of speed-restricted areas where the maximum speed limit applies. Kilmurry McMahon church is located along a regionally important road (R485) where the maximum speed limit applies, and so the provision of additional public lighting is not feasible”.
Discussing the matter, Cllr Gould stated, “there are a lot of funerals there in the winter, going in and out between cars the parking is very scarce, I’d like them to have a look at it and put in a couple of lights to which Kennelly replied, “I wouldn’t hold my breath”.
Michael McNamara, senior executive engineer in the transportation department of the Council in response to Shannon’s request passed the buck back to the West Clare MD office. “The public lighting section holds responsibility for the maintenance of our existing public lighting networks and does not possess a budget for the installation of new lighting units. The installation of any new lighting units would have to be funded through West Clare MD funds.”
Complaints are constant from the electorate over lighting, Cllr Shannon noted. “There’s extra lights needed and there’s also a change in patterns and people’s uses for existing towns and villages. We do require an extra five to seven lights in most places through a combination of different factors, we need to ensure that it happens. We get lots of complaints, three of us have lighting motions in so we have to recognise there is a deficit, we have long and wet winters and we need lighting”.
McNamara also didn’t provide a spark for Cllr Talty’s request in Inagh. He stated, “The installation of a lighting unit at this location has previously been assessed and investigated, with existing lighting units upgraded to maximise lighting coverage on the bridge. Due to the extents of the bridge structure, and in particular its parapet wall, the addition of a lighting unit on the bridge would require significant civils and accommodation works to extend a power source onto the bridge and to construct an externally clad base for the lightning unit. The existing carriageway width does not permit the installation of the lighting unit on the bridge deck. Funding to permit any of the aforementioned works would have to be provided through West Clare MD funds”.
Safety for pedestrians needs to be considered, Cllr Talty flagged. “People are familiar with the layout of the bridge in Inagh, there are two pubs at the junction of a national road and the village links backs over the bridge to the shop, community centre, the church and the GAA field, currently there is also a new scheme of houses being developed there”. He added, “we are all encouraging people to walk from the community centre rather than driving and we want it to be safe. All funerals in Inagh tend to take place in the church, those coming from North Clare park at the pubs where parking is available and walk down so it needs to be safe”.
Inagh is a village “in two segments,” observed Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) when supporting the call for safety improvements.
How officials in the Council have kicked to touch was criticised by Cllr Ian Lynch (IND). “We’ve diverted to roads and now to the Municipal District, is the Council working together or not? People have to start feeling they are getting value for money regardless if they live in an urban or rural part of the county”.
An outlay is needed in the budget this year and in 2027, Cllr Shannon added, “once they are done it will just be maintenance. We need action, this is a hot potato since we got elected” to which Cllr Talty quipped, “it is a hot potato that has been getting cold”.
