A new action group has been set up by frustrated Clonakilty Chamber members, as a result of the traffic chaos being caused by flood relief works in the town.
A NEW action group has been set up by frustrated Clonakilty Chamber members, as a result of the traffic chaos being caused by flood relief works in the town.
The added complication of resurfacing works on the N71 from Faxbridge to Lisselane, which started on Monday, will lead to ‘a perfect storm of works’, according to Chamber chair, Cllr Christopher O’Sullivan, who said it was ‘mindboggling’ that these works were happening at the same time as the flood relief works.
As a result, the Clonakilty Business Action Group (CBAG) was established on Tuesday night during an urgent meeting called by the Chamber. Members voiced their complete frustration with the lack of any communication from any of the bodies involved, as well as from their local TDs.
‘The disruption is much greater than we expected and I don’t think any of us realised the extent of the extreme lack of communication too,’ said Cllr O’Sullivan.
‘There seems to be four to five different parties muddying the waters in terms of communication and any information we receive is second-hand. The issue of the Ring road closure will also affect businesses, so we need to address it in unison,’ he added.
The newly-elected chair of CBAG, Ger Harte of Harte’s Spar supermarket, said that they will have to get active and get clear lines of communication from the builders and other bodies involved, so that they can inform their Chamber members of what’s going on, on a regular basis.
‘We feel that there are things that could be done better too, including the location of lights and stop/go systems and not having two areas being affected at the same time. One of the problems that will come up in the next couple of weeks is the N71 and the bypass could both be on one lane at the one time, at three different locations, Mr Harte told The Southern Star.
He also highlighted the fact that signs on either side of the town during the weekends indicated that works were taking place, and to expect long delays.
‘The town was open for business these weekends and there were no roadworks. All it required was for someone to switch off the signs at the weekend. The signage and national radio reports this week stated that there were two lots of roadworks in Clonakilty – one at Faxbridge and the other on N71 – which weren’t there, and these are telling people not to come in to Clonakilty, whereas Clonakilty is wide open for business,’ he said.
CBAG will hold their inaugural meeting on Tuesday July 31st in O’Donovan’s Hotel.