Tag Archives: linnanes

CLARE County Council has announced that it is to hold a public consultation next week on the future of one of the county’s worst traffic bottlenecks. The council will show the “feasible options” aimed at resolving congestion at Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people endure lengthy tailbacks caused by the narrow junction at Blake’s Corner, as they attempt to travel between Ennistymon and Lahinch. In January this year, the council announced that a report it had commissioned was recommending the construction of a new road and bridge across the Inagh River 80m upstream of the existing Conway Bridge and Blake’s Corner. However, it later emerged that three homes are on the proposed route of the “preferred solution”, including one occupied by a couple in their 70s and another by a young family. The subsequent backlash saw nearly a thousand people attend a public meeting in Ennistymon to discuss the proposal. A series of meetings followed …

Clare County Council has said today (Tuesday) some progress has been made following its engagement with a committee of residents and local representatives relating to traffic management proposals at Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon. Two three-hour meetings have been held, during which detailed discussions took place in relation to the environmental, conservation and traffic requirements that require to be met for any proposal. The appointed project consultants have outlined the range of options explored to date to address the serious safety issues at Blake’s Corner and have presented the variants of different options to the committee. Following discussion and assessment of the options, one of the parties previously affected by land acquisition has been removed from the proposal as an alternative has been identified.

A report on one of the county’s most controversial traffic blackspots has recommended the construction of a new relief road and bridge. Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon has been the scene of traffic chaos for several months each year as hundreds of thousands of people make their way to the Cliffs of Moher. In recent years the corner has been the subject of much controversy with local representatives calling for the demolition of the well-known Blake’s and Linnane’s buildings while local heritage activists have called for their retention. Many North Clare councillors have, for the past decade, requested that Clare County Council knock the buildings arguing that the nature of the busy junction would lead to the death of a pedestrian. A group called Save Ennistymon’s Heritage campaigned for the buildings to be retained claiming they were important to the town’s visual amenity and heritage. It now appears that an inner relief road will be constructed in the village cutting out …