A footpath upgrade is needed now in Dundrum to ensure safety

A new footpath is required in Dundrum to ensure there is a safe route between Dundrum House Hotel and the nearby village.
Currently the roadside is not adequate to deal with the volume of footfall on the road with “well over 200 Ukrainians” staying in the hotel.

The numbers walking on the roadside has increased tenfold over the past twelve months. The issues surrounding the stretch of road was raised at the recent Tipperary/Cahir/Cashel Municipal District meeting.

Due to the increased use of the road by people walking in recent times, several issues have come to light. Councillor Roger Kennedy raised the matter at the meeting to see if something could be done to improve the condition of the road and the safety and comfort of those walking the route on a regular basis.

Cllr Kennedy said he welcomed the Ukrainian community grants that were awarded recently but lamented the fact that the Municipal District and county didn’t put in an application grant for “any type of walkway from Dundrum House where there are well over 200 Ukrainians”.

The stretch of road between Dundrum House Hotel and Dundrum village is a well trodden path used by a large number of Ukrainians living in the hotel. They walk the route daily to the local shops and into the village.

The influx of Ukrainians to the village over the past year has meant that more people than in previous times use the route, however there isn’t a footpath and the route could be hazardous to pedestrians according to Cllr Kennedy: “It doesn’t need a footpath the full way.

It needs a walkway. There is a footpath from the village out as far as the rectory. It just needs a hard core. The space is there now. If you look at it now you can see where people are walking all the time but it is up and down in relation to water outlets off the road,” he said.

He suggested that levelling the walkway to prevent a dip would be beneficial and added that making the route safer would solve a lot of issues. Ensuring the walkway is upgraded would mean the route would be easier to navigate and it would also be easier to avoid traffic on the busy road.

Cllr Kennedy felt this would be “much safer” and asked the engineering staff if they could look at the situation regarding “preparing an application for Roderic O’Gorman’s Department” because while there was national funding which Tipperary benefitted from, it was still open for other projects and “that type of work” Cllr Kennedy said.

In response the council said there were a number of community groups in the Dundrum area that “were looking at it” before adding that they have the costs related to it and if there was an opportunity to get funding they “certainly will follow that up”.