Council in race to spend €562,000 by year's end

THE good news is that Cork County Council is to receive €562,222 in funding under the CLÁR programme. The bad news is that the money has to be spent before the end of the year.

The subject came up for discussion at a meeting of the West Cork Municipal District last week when Cllr Paul Hayes asked that the funding, which has been approved for traffic measures in the village of Lislevane, be carried out as quickly as possible.

The area engineer, Michael Tobin, told him it would not be possible to have a full scheme developed in that timeframe. However, he did acknowledge that there are issues in that area that need to be resolved, and it is on the Council’s to do list.

Cllr Hayes asked if it was possible to have the funding extended to 2017. And the municipal district officer, Justin England, said he would check that out before their next meeting.

In the meantime, Cllr Hayes, described the community in the village of Lislevane as being very progressive, having taken a silver medal in the Tidy Towns competition.

‘But,’ he warned, ‘there is an issue with speeding through the village.’ And he described the crossing to the rural post office in Lislevane as ‘pretty hairy’.

Cllr Hayes requested that a flashing light – the kind that warns motorists to reduce their speed – be put in place until the proposed traffic calming measures are finalised.

Mr Tobin said the village already has a 50kph speed limit and he pointed out that, at a cost of between €3,500 and €4,500, the warning signs are ‘quite expensive.’

He did, however, confirm that a traffic study would be carried out in the coming months and that the area would be surveyed to see what measures could be put in place to improve pedestrian safety and manage traffic speed in the area.