Questions over Frances Street upgrade

WHEN President Michael D Higgins delivers his address to the National Famine Commemoration in Kilrush on Sunday, he will do so on a pristinely refurbished Frances Street.

 

However, the freshly painted streetscape and the newly aligned parking spaces haven’t gone down too well in Kilkee where Post Office Lane, in its current condition, has been labelled “a safety hazard”.

At Monday’s meeting of Kilkee Town Council, Councillor Lily Marrinan Sullivan queried why the appearance of Frances Street has been upgraded, while Post Office Lane remains in a poor state.

“I’ve just seen one of the biggest streets in Kilrush resurfaced, although it’s a street that there was nothing wrong with,” Councillor Marrinan Sullivan fumed.

“I am not criticising the decision to do it but I am questioning it. Post Office Lane in Kilkee is a health and safety hazard for those who walk it. Many of them are elderly people who have to go to the only chemist in the town,” the Kilkee town councillor said.

Kilrush Town Clerk John Corry told the meeting that the money allocated to Frances Street comes from Kilrush Town Council’s annual allocation of €115,000 for road works and not from the annual €2.9m allocation to the Kilrush Electoral Area.

“Frances Street is covered in a separate allocation. Kilrush Town Council receive an allocation for their road works programme separate to that of the allocation in West Clare. It’s Kilrush Town Council specifically,” John Corry stated.

Separately senior engineer Cyril Feeney told the meeting that close to €200,000 is spent in Kilkee upgrading roads, footpaths and cleaning streets most years.

“There’s approximately 1,200km of road in the Kilrush Electoral Area and there’s approximately 12km of roads in the Kilkee Town Council area. If you were to allocate funding on the basis of the kilometres of roads in Kilkee, Kilkee Town Council represents 1% of the roads in the Kilrush Electoral Area. On that basis 1% of €2.9m is €29,000 if you allocated strictly on the basis of kilometres of road in Kilkee,” Mr Feeney noted.

However Councillor Marrinan Sullivan said Kilkee creates money for Clare County Council.

“There may be many kilometres of roads in the Kilrush Electoral Area but very few of them bring in the money to Clare County Council that Kilkee does. Rates in this town are absolutely frightening. My understanding is that the hotel that has just been bought out the Kilrush road, the automatic rates are €52,000 a year before a door is opened. There’s huge money coming out of Kilkee,” she said.

The two road projects, which Cyril Feeney said he is “trying to progress in Kilkee” are a €30,000 Low Cost Safety Scheme at Circular Road and improvement work at Minister’s Place, which would cost €35,000.