DEVELOPMENT of community centric ‘slow roads’ has the potential to make West Clare a leading cycling destination in tandem with the construction of a Greenway.
A pilot series of community centric ‘slow roads’ has been sought by Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) across the West Clare Municipal District. He appealed to MD staff to work in conjunction with local communities to identify the routes which would be followed by an application for Active Travel to fund the pilot.
Senior executive engineer, Alan Kennelly noted that the identification of the slow roads and Active Travel were “distinct segments” to the motion. He suggested the roads be chosen before any application is considered. “I would point out that there is neither a budget nor the personnel available within the West Clare MD to carry out the consultation process that is required. However, there are consultants who specialise in this type of work. The cost of hiring a firm following a competitive Tender competition may not be prohibitive”.
He added, “I am speaking on behalf of others, but it may be that funding might be available from a number of sources to fund the appointment of consultants. I would suggest GMA, Fáilte Ireland via Clare County Council Tourism Office, and West Clare MD discretionary funding might all contribute. If we set out suitable roads in a plan then an application to the NTA Active Travel fund could be made and would hopefully prove successful”.
Speaking at a sitting of the West Clare MD, Cllr Murphy said it was justified to pump resources into the West Clare Greenway but stressed, “we need to think about what happens when the Greenway is done, we have an opportunity through our own resources to add to it from the outset. We will miss a trick if we don’t tie in the potential use of cycling and walking routes. We need to view the Greenway as an artery but we need to create a series of veins to link our communities but also for marketing”.
Creativity is required because “it is utterly inconceivable that we will ever get the funding,” the Kilkee representative conceded. “Use what we have when we have it. We’re blessed with a web of small single track roads, why not use some of them as slow roads, reducing speed limits would make them exponentially safer for walkers, cyclists and children. It would allow us send out a clear message that West Clare is a safe place that welcomes cyclists and pedestrians”. Some examples of 80km/h speed limits are “entirely inappropriate,” he felt.
There is an appetite to help “West Clare to be regarded as a cycling destination,” Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) outlined. He referenced a strategy on trails in Kilrush “showing the various routes” which he believed was a “base document that might give us a platform to move forward”. The proposal brought with it “a huge opportunity and huge potential”.
Routes can be used effectively, Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) acknowledged. “For us in North Clare, there is no Greenway through the area where the vast majority of numbers flow through to the Cliffs of Moher & UNESCO Burren Geo Park, here in the motion lies something that could contribute to steering tourism to slow down”. Slow and safer roads can steer traffic to towns and villages, “I won’t say it’s a no brainer but it is deliverable within our own strategies,” he stated.
Slow streets are already a concept “but it is very city delivered,” Cllr Murphy responded. “I’m coming at this from the point of view of talking to people on the ground and seeing what routes would work for them”.
Public consultation is essential to any progression of the motion, Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) commented. He highlighted that tourists tend to travel from Ballyvaughan to the perfumery in Carron as an example of going from “an improved road to an unimproved road, the unimproved road would be an attractive walkway but daunting for someone in a higher car used to a better road, the sharp bends and steep declines add to it”. Designing slow routes in the Burren need to have little difficulty for persons living and working in the area, he added.
Priority should be on the Greenway, Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) maintained while suggesting the slow roads have a timeframe. “You’ve good ideas, you usually have but I don’t think we’re ready for the road you want to go down, there is a lot of work to be done first. Do our Greenway and take it from there,” he said of Murphy’s proposal.
“This is twelve years in the making, I don’t think it can wait anyway longer, it is a massive area, consultation would take two years to do,” Cllr Lynch replied. “I did say a timeframe but I said do the Greenway first,” Cllr Keating clarified.
Creation of slow roads must be “an absolute priority for North Clare, the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher,” Cllr Garrihy stressed. “Our ambition is to bring one million people to our Municipal District, we can’t build attractions without putting it as our number one priority, if we’re talking about proper planning this should have been done first. We need to ensure our local residents and communities have a quality of life but encourage our visitors to come back,” the Lisdoonvarna man continued.
Views of Cllr Keating were strongly opposed by Cllr Murphy. “This is no circumstance is an either or issue, we’re a big enough organisation to take care of the two. We have hundreds and hundreds of kilometres of single one track bog roads with the speed limited at 80km/h that we could make 30 or 50km/h and send out a clear message that we’re a safe cycling area”.
According to Cllr Murphy, his South-West Clare colleague was “missing the point”. He elaborated, “The Greenway will happen, I’ve no doubt about it, there are significant challenges in delivering it, we have these ready made roads, they don’t have to be surfaced. This is a no brainer”. The West Clare MD Chair said, “There’s no reason why this couldn’t be rolled out in a year’s time and we will still be waiting for the Greenway in a year, two years or three years time, that’s how long it will probably take in my view and I’d be delighted to be wrong, that’s where we are”.
Prior to the speed limit review in June 2024, the solutions for the ‘slow roads’ should be in place, Cllr Killeen said. Cllr Murphy questioned if a road was identified in the next six months to change the speed limit could this be completed outside the review. “An individual case would have to be made but yes it can be done,” senior executive officer, John O’Malley confirmed.
O’Malley affirmed that the plan put forward made sense, “we have such a length of rural roads that are not suited to the 80km/h that you talk about, we all live in the areas so we know what it’s like, I work with the senior engineers and senior officers in the various departments to determine what is the best way to approach this and best way to progress it. We are pulling as much information together as possible between us to see what is the best way to progress a plan in relation to this, we are getting the information together and we are working with the public consultation so there is a plan that needs to be developed around all of that and determine what is the appropriate section to lead it”.
Cllr Murphy informed the meeting he was happy to put some of his General Municipal Allocation into the project. “It would deliver huge value for the communities where I live, I’m not committing anyone else’s”.
If over two years all the slow roads were identified then that would represent a success, Cllr Shane Talty (FF) argued. “It should be a major priority project, the line Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) uses at Budget time comes to mind, ‘we need to go through the finances ‘line by line’ but if we did nothing in the next two years other than to go through our roads kilometre by kilometre and have a detailed plan”.
