Inconvenience for residents at Spancilhill regrettable, says council

THE inconvenience experienced by residents waiting for the completion of improvement works on a 750m stretch of road at Spancilhill, at a cost of €2.9 million, has been deemed “regrettable” by Clare County Council this week. 
The comment was made in response to a motion tabled at an Ennis East Area Meeting on Monday by Councillor Sonny Scanlon, who asked when the Spancilhill Road would be completed and reopened.
He said works were “causing a lot of anger and inconvenience” to residents in the locality. 
Tom Tiernan, senior engineer Clare County Council, said “the inconvenience that has been caused is regrettable”.
“A number of issues have combined to create this situation, drainage management complexities, rock removal, the gradual erosion in the number of available staff and the incapacity to replace them and so on. The objective at present is to restore two-way traffic in four to six weeks from now and to have completed the project by the end of this year,” he said.
Responding to the formal reply, Councillor Scanlon said, “I’ve had more complaints – you would think I was the engineer. Why wouldn’t the council make the road in a way that you could move both ways? All we want is to see the road put in a way that lets traffic move up and down as usual. Get rid of the traffic lights and put the traffic in a way it can go both ways.”
Johnny Flynn supported the motion and commented, “There has been a huge amount of complaints about this.This is painting the council in a bad light and it’s causing a huge concern. This is a main artery in and out of Ennis.”
Also speaking on the motion, Mayor of Clare Councillor Pat Daly said, “I know the monies are coming in dribs and drabs and the staff numbers are down but this is very unfair on the local traffic. I am calling on this to be moved as quickly as possible.”