*David Griffin. Photograph: Joe Buckley
ONE of the challengers for a seat on Clare County Council has said he is inundated with complaints on the conditions of footpaths and road networks in the Shannon Municipal District.
Newmarket-on-Fergus native, David Griffin (FF) is one of three Fianna Fáil candidates in the Shannon MD. As things stand, he is the second youngest candidate declared for the local elections this June.
During his canvassing which has been focused in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Shannon and Sixmilebridge to date, a constant message received by the UL graduate has been on the need for improvements to local footpaths and roads. “I have been out and about a lot over the last number of months engaging with people and getting to grips with many of the local issues on the ground”.
He stated, “There is not a day that general maintenance of footpaths and roadways within estates is not raised with me. The Tidy Towns groups in Shannon under the leadership of Derek Clune and Newmarket-on-Fergus under Tom Neylon, and indeed right around the MD do terrific work, and they are supported in any way possible by the Council, but the Shannon MD is simply not as well-resourced as it should be”.
Griffin outlined, “There is huge frustration with the quality of footpaths in many estates, especially some of the older estates. Shannon is the county’s second town, and there is a strong feeling that we are the poor relation, and that the revenue and rates generated in the town are not being reinvested in the area”.
“I recently logged a footpath in Shannon Town, which was a trip hazard with Clare County Council, who in fairness agreed to assess it, but the resident who raised it with me said that they had been asking for proper upgrades and maintenance of the footpath for close to ten years. In the counties second town, a town of over 10,000 people, this simply should not be the case,” he added.
Griffin concluded, “Maintaining public footpaths and roads in estates is a huge body of work and a hugely expensive endeavour, but it’s the bread and butter issues that people expect to be able to get done”.
