Frustration has been voiced in Tuamgraney about the delay to carry out repairs to what has been labelled the ‘busiest footpath in East Clare’.

At this month’s meeting of the Killaloe Municipal District, Cllr Pat Burke (FG) sought an update to ascertain why requested works were not completed on a section of footpath at Drewsborough in Tuamgraney between Nilands service station and Nuala’s restaurant.

Residents had made their views known to the Leas Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council on the lack of progress made with in upgrading the footpath. He calculated that the work required would take a couple of hours to complete.

Executive engineer, Declan Flanagan detailed that the work could be organised to take place in “the next couple of weeks”. He acknowledged that their schedule of tasks had been curtailed due to COVID-19 with crews “going flat out” since the roadwork programme commenced.

When Burke’s initial proposal was tabled, senior executive engineer Niamh Madden committed to a survey of the footpath and to completing any “essential maintenance where necessary”. Complaints have been associated with the footpath for a long time, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) noted.

A high level activity of pedestrians particularly in the evenings have been using the footpath, Cllr Burke recounted. This has brought to his attention the need for upgrades, he surmised. “It is probably the busiest section of footpath in all of the Killaloe Municipal District,” the Whitegate representative stated.