South Clare

CLARE County Council has agreed to discuss the possible relocation of the flood protection barrier at Shannon Banks with the Office of Public Works following a request from a local county councillor.Councillor Pascal Fitzgerald requested the council to move the barrier beyond the footpath in Shannon Banks at a Killaloe Electoral Area meeting in Westbury last week. Up to 22 families in Shannon Banks had to leave their homes during the flooding last November.The new section of earthen embankment includes a substantial amount of stone wraps around the rear of houses in Hamstead Park, which was one of the areas worst hit by the flooding. The OPW has built up lower parts of the existing riverbank further up the Shannon Banks estate at College View Drive and Riverside Drive.Resident Mike Mooney said there was three to four feet of water outside his house, which, thankfully, didn’t get in. This was the third time this area was flooded after the River …

PLANS to build a state-of-the art €10 million nursing home in Westbury have been met with several objections.In a submission to Clare County Council, An Taisce claimed the site wasn’t within walking distance of shops and bus routes and didn’t have easy access to rooms in the nursing home for those with disabilities.It stated that toilet facilities were not disability friendly and there appeared to be only one shared bathroom on each corridor.“Our main concern is water management, the proximity of the River Shannon and flooding. “The site has major drainage problems and we do not feel that the water and sewage would be adequate for the established EU drinking water and that waste disposal systems would be within the performance of the EU water framework for surface and ground water protection,” the submission stated.The Athlunkard Partnership, comprising a group of Mid-Western businessmen, is seeking planning permission to construct a two-storey nursing home consisting of 110 single en-suite bedrooms, day …

Tourist offices and rock groups don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand but that looks set to change dramatically judging by the success of a new music venture in Killaloe.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has confirmed that the Westbury Primary Care Centre is open to babies born in the area. It was responding to a request to clarify whether or not young children from Westbury and Shannon Banks attending national school in Limerick City would receive development checks in the new facility.

CLARE County Council should have called in the Irish Defence Forces to grit impassable roads throughout East Clare, a local county councillor has claimed.

  An experienced member of the Killaloe Coast Guard Unit is poised to become the first person from the Irish Coast Guard service to row 5,000 kilometres across the Atlantic OceanMike Jones, who also works as full-time operations manager with the University of Limerick Activity Centre (ULAC) at Ballycuggeran, Killaloe, was due to join five international crewmates to embark on a gruelling endurance test from the Port de Plaisance Marina in Agadir, Morocco, to Bridgetown in Barbados this Thursday morning. The voyage will be the first to use Agadir as a start port for an ocean row and will only be the second ever ocean rowing voyage to start from a Moroccan port; a staggering 213 ocean rowing trips have left from the Canary Islands.Two charities, Milford Care Centre, Limerick and Marymont Hospice, Cork, will also benefit from Mike’s adventure. Having set a target to raise €25,000, half of all the money raised will go to the charities and the …

Sandbags could become a must-have household accessory in South-East Clare judging by their versatility in dealing with different weather extremes in recent weeks.They proved to be vital in the successful battle to keep rising flood water out of homes in Shannon Banks when the Shannon burst its banks last November and were also used to ensure that no house was flooded in nearby Westbury.Once the water subsided, very few people realised that they would come in handy for another purpose a few weeks later – the gritting of paths and roads during the current big freeze.Councillor Pascal Fitzgerald and local businessman Tony Hayes used sand from spare sandbags to grit the car park and areas around St Nicholas Church and Westbury to facilitate a safer passage for motorists and pedestrians who struggled to get to grips with icy patches.Although the main parts of the Killaloe to Shannon Banks road was gritted, Councillor Fitzgerald said byroads didn’t receive any sand or …

More dredging is needed near Castletroy in Limerick to significantly reduce the risk of a repeat of the havoc created by flooding for residents in South-East Clare last November, according to a resident. The Office of Public Works (OPW) carried out some remedial works to remove sediment deposited over the years at the confluence point of the Old River Shannon and its Mulcair tributary in Clonlara last year.However, Fergal Marrinan, who was part of a delegation who met then Minister of State Tom Parlon in March 2007, claims a wider channel needs to be dug to prevent a repeat of the flooding, which caused devastation in Clonlara.Describing the most recent flooding as much worse than the previous incidence in December 2006, Mr Marrinan said that the scale of the remedial work carried out on the Old River Shannon wasn’t sufficient to prevent a repeat of the flooding.He hoped that the OPW would conduct a review of the work they had …