Motorists’ excessive speed in the area of Clonmoney N.S. is putting the safety of school children at risk, it has been claimed.
At the January meeting of the Shannon Municipal District, Cllr Pat McMahon asked the local authority to consider reducing the speed limit in the general area of Clonmoney School, Newmarket-on-Fergus and the entrance to the Wells Church “as some motorists use excessive speed in this area”.
As outlined by senior engineer, Aidan O’Rourke, the current speed limit on the L-3177 is 80km/hr. “Any changes to speed limits are considered in the context of the county-wide speed limit review and this proposal will be put forward for consideration at the next such review. If there are ongoing concerns regarding speeding by some motorists then this may be an enforcement issue for the Gardaí”.
Cllr McMahon highlighted the particular section of road in front of the school is “where motorists pick up speed”. He maintained, “this problem is not going away, the school is hopefully going to get bigger so the problem will only get bigger”. The Fianna Fáil councillor claimed that some of the drivers guilty of speeding at the location have children attending the Newmarket-on-Fergus school. He asked O’Rourke to notify the Gardaí of the issue. “There needs to be an ongoing and regular speed check here, people must be summoned for putting kids in danger, a follow up is the only way to bring down the speed”.
His motion was seconded by Fine Gael’s John Crowe. “There is also a big co-op store on the same road being used by a lot of farmers and a new housing estate across the road. People from East Clare are using this road to get to work in the Industrial Estate, this particular section is very busy”.
In adding his support to the motion, Cllr Gerry Flynn was reminded of a separate issue at the Drumline interchange which has underwent recent road design work. “Tailbacks are now back as far as Dromoland”. He stated that several people had contacted Clare County Council complaining about the traffic.
Approximately 130 pupils attend Clonmoney N.S. which in recent months applied for planning permission to build two classrooms, a sports hall, staff room and the retention of prefabs. In November, the school confirmed the “Council had requested further information to our initial applications earlier in the year in terms of the scale of the project”. Irish Aviation Authority had requested that both it and the Airport be contacted at least thirty days in advance before any cranes be used at the school.
