Draft plan proposes to give town a facelift

A DRAFT plan to improve the appearance of Shannon includes landscaping at the Ballycasey Roundabout, improvements at the forecourt of the Seán Lemass Library and improvements to signage in the town.

Ruth Hurley of Clare County Council attended this week’s meeting of Shannon Town Council and she told the members that the categories involved in the Tidy Town’s reports had been looked at, to see where improvements might be made.
She said a series of actions that would cost a relatively small amount but achieve a high impact were identified.
While she said that Shannon was performing well in terms of the built environment, improvements could be made to the library forecourt area, which would involve the replacement of broken slabs, kerbs and paving. “Although the building got praise, looking at it on the ground, there are works to do,” said Ms Hurley.
She said that the estimated cost of the works was around €4,000.
With regard to landscaping, she said Shannon had received 41 out of 50 marks in its assessment but there were proposals for further improvements. “There are a number of dead and damaged trees in the town and it is proposed to replace them with native species.”
Ms Hurley said it was estimated that 30 new trees could be supplied at a cost of €800.
She said Ballycasey Roundabout is an important point of entrance to the town and it could be “the jewel as you enter Shannon”. This would involve an outlay of an estimated €8,000. She also said the plan involved additional planting at the Maze in Drumgeely.
With regard to wildlife and amenities, she said that Shannon had received a surprisingly low 29 marks out of a possible 50 in its assessment.
She said it was planned to make improvements at the Point in Tullyglass and to repair and clean the sign at the wetlands area.
In relation to litter control, a litter awarenesss education programme is proposed. Shannon received a score of 80% in relation to waste minimisation and Ms Hurley said maintaining this should be the target. “It’s difficult to see how to move it on but it is critical to keep it,” she said.
With regard to tidiness proposals included were removing signs at Bóthar Luachra and the town sign at Murphy’s, something that it was estimated would cost around €1,000.
With regard to improving residential areas, it was suggested that efforts continue to raise awareness of the local Tidy Town’s groups work.
In summary, Ms Hurley said the plan has a total of 25 actions, 17 of which would not involve additional cost.
She said co-operation between different bodies was important. “For me, the key was that everyone has ideas and if they are threaded together there is real strength to that.”
Councillor Sean McLoughlin said if all the actions were completed, it would result in a significant enhancement of Shannon. He said that whatever is planted at the Ballycasey Roundabout shouldn’t grow too high for safety reasons. “It was a very dangerous roundabout a number of years ago,” he added.
Councillor Gerry Flynn said he would love to see the River Walk developed. “We need to attract people to Shannon and if we develop the River Walk it would be money well spent.”
Town manager Bernadette Kinsella said sources of funding would need to be identified to carry out some of the bigger projects.
Later in the meeting. it was proposed that money be drawn from the council’s accumulated reserves to progress the works.