*Kilmihil.
RESIDENTS of Kilmihil must be on the same page when it comes to traffic calming, engineers in Clare County Council have warned after efforts to install measures last year broke down.
Failure to reach agreement during public consultation last year led to plans to install a pedestrian crossing near the People’s Park meeting a speed bump.
A new petition has been signed by in the region of forty local residents seeking the addition of further traffic calming measures in the village.
Bringing the matter before the West Clare Municipal District, Cllr Dinny Gould (IND) said “serious concerns regarding speeding” have been raised by residents. He asked that measures be reviewed “to curb speed going through the village from Keatings Depot to the Old Mart”.
According to Cllr Gould some residents “are petrified leaving their homes on this stretch due to the speed at which cars pass through the village”.
Senior executive engineer in the West Clare MD, Alan Kennelly outlined, “There is a raised pedestrian crossing in place on the R-484, to the east of Keating’s depot”.
It was a bumpy road for the Council when it came to their last attempt to introduce traffic calming measures, he recalled. “Clare County Council had hoped to install another raised pedestrian crossing last year near the People’s Park but, following public consultation, were unable to reach agreement. Were an alternate location available the West Clare MD would welcome the input of our elected members, prior to advancing a traffic calming scheme to design and public consultation stage again”.
Speaking at the September meeting of the West Clare MD, Cllr Gould commented, “the residents want something done immediately and they said they are not waiting around any longer”. Locals “are only waiting to have an accident,” he remarked while suggesting the proposal near the People’s Park was “the wrong place”.
Seconding the motion, Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) stated, “I agree with Cllr Gould, it is an extreme sense of frustration that a petition has been put together. We had a proposal in there and funding got for a pedestrian crossing on Main Street, we had an agreement to put in two speed bumps”.
A lot of effort was exerted by the local authority to progress the measures last year, Cllr Lynch said. “We got a third design done from road design, they are extremely under-resourced so to get one design done is difficult never mind three”. He added, “some people who objected looked for speed controls, we had an agreement for someone to put it outside their home but because of having to the design three times we lost the funding. It is very difficult to go through three rounds of a design and not secure funding. We need to do something, maybe the signatories will come together”.
Public lighting and traffic calming are big issues in Kilmihil, Cllr Rita McInerney (FF) flagged. “We need to come up with a priority list and look for funding in a phased way, we need to have a consultation among the nine of us, feed into it and do a body of work, we need to have a priority list and see if we can get moving with a number of them”.
Geographics of the road “lead to speeding,” Cllr Michael Shannon (FF) noted. “The spirit of the motion is about slowing down traffic on the approach to Kilmihil”. He said the approach from Cree to the village is “very dangerous”.
Responding to the views of councillors, Kennelly said, “I don’t know was it the wrong place” regarding the suggestion from Cllr Gould. He stated, “I share Cllr Lynch’s frustration, we did a lot of work to try get traffic calming into Kilmihil last year. The funding has been reallocated, the regional road is a very quick and fast road, there is a need for traffic calming, the residents of Kilmihil may have signed a submission but there was no observation in support of the traffic calming last year”.
He concluded, “We’d like to be on sure ground before we start designing traffic calming measures, maybe we didn’t have enough of our homework done, we didn’t anticipate it wouldn’t get through a Section 38 last year”.
