Repairs undertaken after coastal erosion at Lisfannon beach in Donegal to allow parking off road

The Journal reported recently on how Inishowen Cathaoirleach Councillor Bernard McGuinness had raised safety concerns over the number of cars forced to park along the hard shoulder on the Derry to Buncrana road at the beach entrance.

Entry to the popular beach was closed earlier this year as the access road had been eroded by the sea.

Donegal County Council had applied for funding for a carpark, but this was denied by the department, something Colr McGuinness expressed concern over.

He described the location as an ‘accident waiting to happen’ and raised fears that a child would run out from the hard shoulder, on to the busy road, which has an 100km speed limit.

Up to 100 cars were forced to park along the hard shoulder on both sides of the road last week as people took advantage of the good weather and visited the beach.

Donegal County Council had previously indicated they were planning to install a temporary parking area at the beach to bring the cars off the road.

Work on this was undertaken last week and allows parking for up to 80 vehicles.

A spokesperson for the council told the Journal: “Access to Lisfannon Beach has been impacted by episodes of coastal erosion over a number of years, resulting in large numbers of cars parking along the hard shoulder of the regional road.

“The Donegal County Council are actively seeking funding to undertake a permanent parking solution at the beach and in the interim have undertaken repairs to the damaged access road, to minimise parking on the Regional Road.

“The repaired access road, should allow parking for circa 80 vehicles.”

Colr McGuinness had raised his concerns at the July meeting of the Inishowen Municipal District, at which Seamus Hopkins, Area Manager for Roads, described Lisfannon Beach as ‘a case study on the impact of climate change on our road network.’ “We’ve lost a road there that’s beyond saving at this stage due to the amount of damage that happens on an annual basis through the action of the sea.”

Colr McGuinness said funding for a permanent solution must be found.

“Some child will run out sooner rather than later and be killed. The way of preventing that from happening is stopping it before it happens and to think the department thought that wasn’t necessary is mind-boggling,” he said.