“No budget is available” to progress the completion of the Shannon Tullyvarraga Woodland.
At the March meeting of the Shannon Municipal District, Cllr Gerry Flynn asked the MD’s senior engineer “to identify some meaningful way” to resurrect the Tullyvarraga Woodland “that was the victim of a scheme put in place some years ago by the Council”. Lack of funding prevented the project completing while an effort last year from the Rural Directorate to source financial assistance was rejected by the Department”.
Senior executive engineer, Aidan O’Rourke acknowledged the progressions would be “desirable” but stated, “no budget is currently available to meet this project cost”. O’Rourke confirmed they would seek funding in 2019 under the Outdoor Recreation Scheme.
A surprised Cllr Flynn declared, “The response is not what I envisaged”. “It was basically sold to the people of Shannon under a Neighbour Wood project, they were promised something similar to Lees Rd and it would be like putting a donkey in Cheltenham the comparison between Tullyvarraga and Lees Rd,” the Independent councillor maintained. He added, “The elephant in the room is Tullyglass Hill where efforts have been made by Clare County Council to turn it into a lunar landscape and there is no way I can support that until other projects are completed”.
“It is embarrassing to say the least when it came to Shannon on rural development,” Cllr PJ Ryan remarked.
O’Rourke provided the meeting with further information by announcing that the area has been re-felled and “a cost estimation has been done for putting in place trailways”. He repeated his view that the best angle to take is by applying for funding in 2019.
