“CREATIVE THINKING” can see the ring road in Kilkee offer a cycling link between the Cliff Walk and the planned West Clare Greenway, a local representative has affirmed.
In a proposal before the West Clare Municipal District, Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) asked that “the safeguarded route for the ring road in Kilkee be assessed for its suitability to provide a walking and cycling link from the Greenway to the coast road and Cliff Walk”. The motion was seconded by Cllr Ian Lynch (IND).
Senior executive engineer in the West Clare MD, Alan Kennelly confirmed that a route for a ring road in Kilkee has been safeguarded but has yet to reach detailed design but flagged that the route was “reasonably short”. Subsequently, he suggested it might be a suitable fit for an Active Travel project.
He said he forwarded Murphy’s views to the project management office “to see if the existing West Clare Greenway could be extended to include the safeguarded route as suggested. They will raise the request with the Greenway consulting engineers and with TII, the funding authority”.
“I like to look at the things we do have in place and see how they can work better,” Cllr Murphy stated. “The costs I guess and the likelihood of it happening are slim to none, it intersects with the Greenway coming into Kilkee and the Cliff Walk, it just occurred to me that a small bit of creative thinking could wrap it into Greenway project, we don’t need the entire width but it is a transport piece albeit pedestrian and cycle”.
Kilkee based Murphy added, “To me it seems like a smart thing to do, there’s funding for Greenways there, it is coming, to bring it into system and that umbrella would say to me you are tapping into a pot of money that is readily available, it passes the secondary school so from an Active Travel perspective it ticks a lot of boxes and links a lot of residential estates and provides a pedestrian and cycling link because it gets very congested in the summer”.
Clarity on funding for Active Travel outside of Ennis and Shannon requires some clarity, Cllr Murphy flagged. Pointing to Cllr Liam Grant (GP), he remarked, “Liam’s Oireachtas colleague (Senator Roisin Garvey), is saying the money is available to be spent but talking to TII it doesn’t seem to qualify”.
