Tag Archives: clare county council

CLARE County Council took precautionary road safety measures on Sunday night when main roads and many secondary roads were gritted, as wet conditions followed by a drop in temperature,  were expected to lead to icy roads in the morning. With mixed weather conditions forecast for the coming days, motorists have been advised to exercise caution and to slow down. A number of accidents last week were attributed to flashes of sleet on roads. Ten incidents occurred on one stretch of the M8 motorway between Crusheen and Gort on Thursday last. Earlier, Met Éireann  issued a new weather warning, warning of wind gusts that could reach up to 130 km/h. The Status Orange Wind Warning was issued on an all-Ireland basis. It stated: “Preliminary Warning : A vigorous Atlantic storm depression is forecast to pass just to the northwest of Ireland overnight on Monday. “The exact track is still not certain, but it is likely to bring some severe winds in …

CLARE County Council has written to Kilrush Town Councillor Tom Prendeville on six occasions in an effort to elicit an apology for a comment passed to a member of their staff at a traffic management meeting in Kilrush in February. However, Councillor Prendeville insists that he did apologise in February and claims his apology is written into the minutes of that meeting. While he described the apology as “contrite and sincere”, Councillor Prendeville claims he was contacted six weeks later and told that the apology wasn’t sufficient. The comment was made during a debate on the placement of double yellow lines on both sides of the Back Road, outside St Senan’s National School in Kilrush. Councillor Prendeville opposed this development, which has led to parents having to park illegally when dropping and collecting their children from school. RIMS meetings are believed to be unique to Kilrush Town Council. They are held in camera, deal with traffic management issues in Kilrush …

CLARE County Council is to commence interim remedial works at the Tradaree Point wastewater treatment plant in Shannon this weekend. The desludging of the plant is aimed at reducing sewage-related odours emanating from the facility. The works will continue next week and into the early weeks of 2014. “Clare County Council wishes to alert residents, on a precautionary basis, that odours may be generated during the desludging operation because of the nature of the operation itself,” explained a Council spokesperson. “Tanks will have to be drained down in sequence, and this may expose solid materials gathered on the floors of the tanks which may be a source of odour while they are being removed. However, even though the operation may cause odours in itself, the overall purpose of the operation is to alleviate odours in the longer term.” “The Council has also secured aeration equipment to blow additional air into the tanks once they are desludged and refilled in sequence. …

WITH the centenary of the 1916 Rising looming, Clare County Council has been urged to take Hastings Cottage under its remit as part of a project linked to Ireland’s commemorations of the Rising and the War of Independence. Hastings Cottage is one of the most historic buildings in Shannon, having been shown on the 1840 Ordnance Survey Map of the area. However, its construction may have been long before that pre-famine date. During the War of Independence Brigadier General Lucas, a senior British officer, was taken captive and held there. One of those guarding him was Major General Michael Brennan, who subsequently led the East Clare Brigade of the IRA. Last year Dúchas na Sionna held an open day at the building, which was attended by descendants of the General. Speaking at last week’s meeting Councillor Duff acknowledged his own involvement with Dúchas na Sionna and said that the heritage group wouldn’t be able to take responsibility for it without …

SPECULATION is mounting that Clare’s longest serving county councillor, PJ Kelly, may not be a candidate in the 2014 local elections next May. The Lissycasey Fianna Fáil councillor has sat on the county council since 1974 and has served with 97 councillors over that period. He was first elected as an Independent councillor in the Miltown Malbay electoral district. He stood for Fianna Fáil in the 1979 local elections. Speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday, Councillor Kelly described himself as “undeclared.” A source said that Councillor Kelly will not run if what was described as a “winning substitute” can be located. “I’m in consultation with local supporters,” was all Councillor Kelly was prepared to say on the matter. Fianna Fáil are due to meet next Tuesday to decide upon their local election strategy. By then they will know what Councillor Kelly’s intentions are.  Councillor Bill Chambers has confirmed he will be seeking a nomination to run in the new …

IN recent weeks, Kilrush Town Councillor Tom Clyne retired from his role as a FÁS job initiative worker in the town. The former town mayor, who was first elected to the local council in 2004, has worked in the position since 1998. As he remembers it, a significant amount of people were employed on the jobs initiative scheme 15 years ago. That figure has since drastically reduced. “There are about 10 people on the scheme in Kilrush at the moment. We have lost a lot of people through retirement or death in the last few years. I think there was 21 on the scheme in 1998,” Mr Clyne said this week. The Westmeath man, whose wife Breda is from Kilrush, worked primarily as a maintenance man on the scheme. “I was one of the people assigned to do the house maintenance for Kilrush Town Council, who were our sponsors. I was a general operative starting off but as we progressed, …

GARDAÍ investigating three arson attacks at houses at Beech Park halting site in Ennis, and separately a further arson attack of a house in Ashline halting site last week, say no arrests have been made. The latest arson attack occurred between 12am on Tuesday, August 20 and 9am on Wednesday, August 21 when three unoccupied houses in Beech Park halting site in Ennis were damaged by fire. Some form of accelerant was used to douse the buildings. Although it did not ignite, considerable smoke damage was caused to the interiors. The arson attacks have been condemned by the chairman of Clare County Council’s Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee (LTACC) Councillor Brian Meaney, who said these arsons exemplify taxpayers’ money “going up in smoke”. He claimed more than €34 million has been invested in Traveller-specific accommodation in the county over a 12-year period, since Clare County Council embarked on a project to provide housing and caravan bays for members of the …