Fianna Fáil councillors have encouraged local authority officials to have greater engagement when it comes to areas bordering Municipal Districts.
Identical motions were tabled by Cllr Alan O’Callaghan and Cllr Pat O’Gorman at the respective meetings of the Killaloe and Shannon Municipal Districts this month. They asked for the executive engineers for each MD to collaborate on a proposal to complete works at Ballycar North in Sixmilebridge as the road is divided between both districts.
Responses from senior executive engineers Niamh Madden and Tom Mellett were the same for both motions. The pair had discussed the matter and noted that the route identified was not included on the current roads programme but will be considered in the future. Both engineers committed to completing “essential maintenance” this year.
Speaking at the January meeting of the Killaloe MD, Cllr O’Callaghan recounted, “This was a road that happens to fall between two stools, half is in our area and the other half is in the Shannon MD. The engineers need to come together”. He recalled that a similar scenario in the vicinity of Knappogue Castle reached a satisfactory conclusion when engineers from the Killaloe MD and Ennis MD co-operated.
He continued, “The road has been patched, Killaloe have been good to patch roads in the past but it is gone behind patching at this stage”. The two-time Leas Cathaoirleach of the County Council outlined that a pensioner who is “totally reliant” on a taxi for means of travel be it to the shop or a doctors appointment brought the matter to his attention.
As he seconded the motion, Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) called for better collaboration between Municipal Districts in the Clonlara area. He questioned if a policy could be drafted to allow the Killaloe MD do one side of the road and the Shannon MD complete the other when it comes to the upgrade and maintenance of roads.
Sentiments detailed in the response from Mellett would be satisfactory to leading to an improvement, Cllr O’Gorman stated at the Shannon MD’s January meeting. Cllr PJ Ryan (IND) backed his request and flagged that the section of road under the Shannon MD’s control was “in a very poor condition”.
Growth of hedges along the road added to it being “in a deplorable state,” Cllr John Crowe (FG) noted while Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) welcomed the engagement between both engineers.
