Council mulls over high-heel challenge to test road surface

A WEST CLARE contractor and a group of town councillors have challenged each other to traverse Kilrush’s Henry Street in high heels to resolve a dispute on whether the road is even.

Businessman Ger Power first suggested Councillor Deirdre Culligan take the high-heel test after she criticised the finishing of cable-laying work carried out by his company, Benarr Construction.

Ms Culligan stood by her comments and said Mr Power should slip into high heels himself and walk the streets if he felt she was wrong.

Then, at a meeting discussing the issue, the gauntlet was thrown down by other councillors on either side of the debate.

The suggestions were made public at the March meeting of Kilrush Town Council when a letter from Mr Power was read concerning comments at the February meeting of the town council.

At that meeting Ms Culligan said some surfaces in Kilrush had been left “very uneven” after the roads had been dug up and relaid by broadband contractors.

“Some of the resurfacing they’ve done is not great,” said Councillor Marian McMahon Jones. “Moore Street, in part, is very shoddy.”

Mr Power’s company Benarr Construction Limited were the contractors employed to lay broadband fibre optic cable in Kilrush.

He objected to comments made to the Clare Champion about the finish of the project.

In his letter, Mr Power said he “rebutted the remarks made by councillors Deirdre Culligan and Marian McMahon Jones concerning the state of the roads left by the laying of fibre-optic cable”.

He claimed a survey had “produced a long list of businesses and residents who are pleased with the professional way in which the work was carried out and the minimum disruption to their business and the excellent reinstatement of same”.

On the walking issue, Mr Power challenged Ms Culligan “to walk up Henry Street in heels to observe what difficulties she may encounter”.

However, Ms Culligan described Moore Street as “a proper disgrace” at last week’s meeting following the laying of fibre-optic cables.

Councillor Marian McMahon Jones suggested Councillor Liam O’Looney accompany Ms Culligan on a high-heeled totter around the streets concerned.

Mr O’Looney though wouldn’t entertain the prospect and claimed he “suffers from fallen arches”.

“I can’t wear high heels,” he maintained.

“If this man loses out on contracts it will cost him a lot of money,” Councillor Tom Prendeville warned. “Local jobs could be lost,” he added.

Councillor Marian McMahon Jones said remarks passed at the February meeting of Kilrush Town Council on the matter were not “defamatory”, while Ms Culligan said her comments at the same meeting were directed at Kilrush Town Council’s management of the roads and not at Benarr Construction.

At the February meeting, Kilrush town engineer Derek Troy said he believed the reinstatement job, following the broadband work, has “generally been pretty good”.