Kilshanny road ‘effectively collapsed’ as councillors call on forestry companies to step up

A KILSHANNY ROAD has been “destroyed” by trucks clearing forestry in North Clare, a county councillor has claimed.

Reinstatement works were requested along the L-5104 in Carrowmanagh, Kilshanny by Cllr Shane Talty (FF) at a sitting of the West Clare Municipal District. He flagged, “The road has been badly damaged from timber trucks clearing local forestry” and argued for its inclusion in the 2025 Schedule of Municipal District Works.

Senior executive engineer in the West Clare MD, Tony Neville stated, “repair and maintenance works to the worst sections along the L-5104 will commence as soon as possible and will continue for the duration of the felling/haulage contract. Once we determine this completion date, the road will be included in the following years Roadworks Programme”.

Speaking at the West Clare MD meeting, Cllr Talty remarked that the road was “destroyed by a third level party”. He commented, “there are vast areas of forestry coming to maturity thirty years after they were planted, it seems strange that there isn’t some condition to the clearing licences for Coillte or private operators, a way of recouping the costs for restructuring the roads. The road here has effectively collapsed”. He added, “These companies should have more to pay than their road tax”.

“This reminds me of the horse who ate the grass,” remarked Cllr Joe Killeen (FF). “It is something we need to look at it, if the road is damaged then we need to look at it”.

Seconding the proposal, Cllr Bill Slattery (FG) recalled, “Back in 2017 they were going to get funding for repairs of these roads, there was some agreement in place going back that they would pay for some maintenance”.

Neville said he was not aware of such an agreement. “It is a public road, they are entitled to be on, I stand open to correction but I don’t think there is an agreement”.

Acting Director of Service, John O’Malley told the meeting, “Cllr Slattery is touching on something which we’ve been dealing with because there are roads getting damaged”. He advised that they have been liaising with personnel in the Department of Agriculture and Forestry, “it’s been difficult”. He continued, “We’ve been working, we’ve had some success but it is tricky, we’re trying to get Dept to enter agreement to get it more streamlined”. O’Malley concluded, “It is a work in progress, we have to keep at it”.