I call on senior engineer Darragh O' Boyle to seek funding for a complete upgrade of St. Mary's close and road at the back of St Marys church. Residents can not understand why they were left out of capital funding that St Georges' and main street are having at the present time. There has been very little work done there in a long number of years. I, along with others would rate St Mary's as being centre of Carrick-on-Shannon.
Minutes:
"I call on Senior Engineer, Darragh O' Boyle to seek funding for a complete upgrade of St. Mary's close and road at the back of St Marys church. Residents cannot understand why they were left out of capital funding that St Georges' and Main Street are having at the present time. There has been very little work done there in a long number of years. I, along with others would rate St Mary's as being centre of Carrick-on-Shannon.”
Report by Roads - General
"The District Engineer has met with the local residents in St Marys Close and has taken note of their concerns. The Capital office have been requested to include these public realm works in any future capital scheme as the O&M budget would not cater for a complete urban renewable (works that would include undergrounding of services, complete footpath renewal, public lighting upgrades and new road surfacing). We will know by year end if capital investment in St Marys Close is an option. If not, we can carry out minor road lining works, public light LED
replacement in early 2021. We can also propose a community involvement scheme for the residents in 2021 which will involve community match funding of 15%."
Councillor Farrell noted the reply and outlined a number of issues that need to be addressed in this area, namely:
· Need for Small Car Park
· Improved Public Lighting
· Footpath Repairs
· Issues with parking at back of St Mary’s Church
· Emergency Vehicles not being able to gain access to area behind church or residential area of St Mary’s Close due to cars parked.
· Traffic coming up and turning at top of St Mary’s Close
Councillor Armstrong McGuire supported and seconded the motion. She said that these issues have been raised on a number of occasions. The public use of this area has increased significantly in the last 10 years. The parking area beside St. George’s Church is very busy. There is no capacity on Main Street to provide parking for St Mary’s Church. They tend to use the small area behind the church when attending mass. This area is seeing more and more public use than it was originally designed to cater for. The footpaths in this area are very uneven. It is time that these issues were addressed. The car parking spaces have faded at the area around St. George’s Church. She said it was very unfair to ask residents to pay a 15% contribution to have works done in their area.
Councillor Stenson supported the motion commenting that he had a similar motion tabled about 6 months ago and at that stage Mr Shay O’Connor advised that the council would hope to have this area included in the second phase of the public realm scheme.
Councillor Guckian commented that it was a bottleneck in this area. Needs to be tackled. He agreed with Councillor Armstrong McGuire that it was too much to ask residents to make a contribution.
Councillor McGowan also supported the motion stating that this had become an extremely busy area and he hoped it would be included in the second phase of public realm works.
Mr O’Boyle informed the meeting that he had met and discussed the issues with residents. The situation at present is not being helped by the public realm works on Main Street, vehicles can come as far as Main Street but cannot go any further, they have to turn up St Mary’s Close and go back down. He talked to the Capital Projects Office regarding phase 2 of the public realm works and they hope to have a decision by the end of the year. He said he would look at carrying out remedial work on the public lighting, hopefully in December/January. This would involve replace the old bulbs with new LED bulbs. With regard to the issue of access of emergency service vehicles he said that he would need to meet with the parish council to discuss this issue.
Councillor Farrell concluded emphasising the seriousness of emergency vehicles gaining access to this area. This is something that needs to be addressed immediately.