INSTALLING additional public lighting adjacent to a West Clare school may result in traffic safety issues, officials in Clare County Council have warned.
Citing the interests of “public health”, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) called for a public light be installed adjacent to Clondrinagh National School, he was supported in this bid by Cllr Shane Talty (FF).
Located on the L-2150 local primary road, senior executive engineer in the West Clare Municipal District, Alan Kennelly flagged that Clondrinagh NS was situated “where the maximum speed limit, in this case 80km/h applies”.
He referenced previous guidance from the roads and transportation department of the local authority “that there are road and traffic safety issues with providing additional public lighting columns outside speed-restricted areas where the maximum speed limit applies”.
Public lighting engineer in the Council, Pat Lynch advised “The ESB pole immediately across the school has a transformer on it thus cannot be used to mount a public street light. The ESB poles in the area carry a 10kv line and these poles are also unsuitable for mounting public lighting”.
Traffic movements at Clondrinagh were brought into focus by Cllr Kelly, “it’s on a junction therefore it’s not a high speed limit,” he asserted. “I’ve been speaking to someone since and they’ve a former ESB pole if a light can be put up on it,” Kelly said. “It is one of two small schools in a rural area,” the former teacher while pointing to declining enrolment numbers in certain sections of West Clare.
