Ring road in Clonakilty is ‘toppling into the sea’

THE wall on the road to Ring is toppling into the sea.

Worse still, according to Cllr Karen Coakley (FG), it is falling into the path of pedestrians from Clonakilty, who are exercising within their 5km.

At a meeting of the West Cork Municipal District, engineer, John Ahern, said the Council does not have the €20,000 needed to reinstate the wall.

But Cllr Coakley and Cllr Paul Hayes (Ind) insisted that the danger to pedestrians cannot be ignored.

The rubble on the road and the fact that it is frequently flooded – and therefore impassable at high tide – was also raised by Richfordstown resident, Peter Walsh.

He told The Southern Star that residents were without access to the Ring Road for nine months to facilitate the Clonakilty Flood Relief Scheme.

He described as ‘incredulous’ the fact that the 100m stretch of the wall wasn’t improved during that project to prevent the road – and some properties in Ring – flooding at high tide.

He said a pre-Christmas storm has made the situation even worse because now the wall appears to be ‘disintegrating, providing little or no protection as a result.

‘Unless remedial action is taken,’ he warned, ‘huge sections of the old wall will fall into the sea and the footpaths will be next to go.’

Cllr Coakley said detours are ‘a major inconvenience’ but the real problem is that if the walls are not repaired now ‘it is going to lead to a much bigger problem.’

Cllr Hayes raised the matter recently at a Western Committee meeting and the county engineer told him it might be possible to apply for funding under the minor works programme.

‘Something needs to be done because the wall has been battered in recent months,’ said Cllr Hayes, who suggested that when the footpath at Faxsbridge is being finished the contractor should carry on and fix the wall and footpath on the road to Ring.

‘We are going to have these Covid-19 restrictions for some time, and €20,000 is very small money in the overall cost of things,’ said Cllr Coakley.