Mayor of Clare criticises NRA over signage vandalism

MAYOR of Clare, Councillor Christy Curtin is on a collision course with the National Roads Authority (NRA) over its failure to adequately deal with the vandalism of signs on national roads.
Councillor Curtin accused the NRA of ignoring a series of letters and requests for action to be taken on the defacement of road signs in North and West Clare at a local authority meeting on Monday.
“There has been defacing and vandalism of signs throughout the county. I saw a lot of it before the last General Election.
“I have been continually raising the vandalism of signs with the NRA over the last 12 months and they have not got back to me once,” he said.
He suggested an audit of road signs should be conducted throughout the county to facilitate an upgrading and maintenance of direction signposts on national primary and secondary roads in the county.
Councillor Joe Arkins expressed concern about the misspellings on new road signs recently provided by the NRA.
The Ruan councillor told the meeting he had seen Corofin spelt with two ‘r’s’, Lahinch spelt as Lehinch and different spellings of Ballyvaughan.
“Can we finally agree on what we call our towns and villages? Just because a mistake was made when a place was translated from Irish in the 1840s doesn’t mean we have to carry out with this mistake for the rest of time.
“Some of the names on signs and villages and towns is just unbelievable at the moment. It is a real issue and is causing a lot of upset for people involved in tourism and tourists are being lead half way around to see another village,” he said.
He proposed that the colloquial and local spelling of a town or village should be the one used on signs.
Councillor Michael Kelly warned that tourists from the United States of America were being left totally confused by the spellings on road signs.
While the council was funding Burren Connect, he claimed that people would be left with “Burren Disconnect” if these signs were left in place.
Councillor Oliver Garry complained that signs at junctions were defaced and unreadable in some locations and required a countywide approach to tackle this problem.
Expressing concern about signs turned the wrong way, Councillor Scanlan wondered who was responsible for upgrading signs.
Councillor Tom McNamara said the NRA spurned a great opportunity to change road signs before the Ennis Bypass was completed but it decided to leave them as they were.
Acting director of services, Nora Kaye told the meeting a communication was issued to all area engineers within the past few weeks requesting that they endeavour to ensure that all signage in their respective areas is adjusted as required to ensure that the information projected is accurate and correct.
They have also been requested to carry out maintenance works on signage with a view to having it reasonable and presentable for the tourist season.
To celebrate Civic Responsibility Week which runs from May 9 to 15, Environment Minister, Phil Hogan is offering Clare County Council a one-off grant to help show the world its beauty during the forthcoming visit of US President Barack Obama and the Queen of England.
“The visits will put the country in the spotlight of international media attention and will offer us a unique opportunity to market Clare to potential visitors and investors. With that in mind, I would like to help the local authority with a special one-off grant of €10,000. This money can be used to support a range of environmental projects like raising awareness and cleaning up areas with high amenity value. Whenever possible, these projects should be co-ordinated with local business and local community groups,” he said.
He said that even if each person picked up one piece of litter in Clare, it would have a significant impact.
Ms Kaye noted some of this €10,000 would be spent on a countywide signage maintenance/improvement initiative – some of which would be completed in association with Tidy Towns communities.
She confirmed the council was also working with the NRA to improve signage along national routes.