A HUNGER exists to extend the River Fergus Greenway into Clarecastle and efforts are underway to advance this project.
Citing the high volume of people using the walkway on a daily basis, Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) stated, “there is a hunger to extend the Greenway further to Clarecastle village. Last autumn, there was an outdoor recreation scheme allocation of €50,000 to conduct a feasibility study on the viability of potential of this extension”.
In a proposal before the Ennis Municipal District, Cllr Murphy asked that sufficient resources be made available to progress the study “as a matter of urgency”.
Acting senior executive engineer in the Ennis MD, Paddy Tiernan confirmed that the project is to be advanced. “The funding granted for this project will allow for topographical surveys, environmental reports and site investigation works to be completed. Ennis MD together with our colleagues in Rural Development are currently preparing tender documents to appoint the necessary consultants and contractors. We can confirm sufficient resources are available to progress this project”.
Stage one of the project was heralded as “fantastic” by Cllr Murphy. Adding Clarecastle in the second phase will involve going upstream “but that is up to the consultants to look at,” he stated.
Funding can always be sourced, an optimistic Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) noted, “It is a great amenity and it will be wonderful if it is to be done. It has been a success. There will always be obstacles, if there is a wall we can go through it, around it or over it, find the funding required to get it over the line”.
Cllr O’Callaghan was adamant it was worth doing, “from a mind and family point of view it would be a win situation for all of the locality within our town centre”.
Mayor of the Ennis MD, Cllr Pat Daly (FF) quipped, “the walk has been a great success from Doora Bridge to Clareabbey, it is vital that it continues to Clarecastle, we won’t amalgamate the two teams though”.
This prompted Cllr Murphy to question the record books, “Clarecastle’s first championship was won with the support of Ennis, we have 13 championships in Clarecastle but we actually have 13.5”.
