Shannon

CLARE County Council are set to spend more than €7 million (before VAT) on building affordable housing in Cluain Airne and, despite the ongoing correction in the property market, they expect the scheme to sell out.At this week’s meeting of Shannon Town Council, Councillor Cathy McCafferty put forward a motion asking for the unit cost of an affordable home at the site. In response, town manager Bernadette Kinsella said, “The contract construction prices is €7,005,236.59, exclusive of VAT, for the total scheme of 60 houses. This figure will be adjusted to reflect the type of house and to include consultants’ fees, legal fees and any other associated costs to arrive at a final unit cost.”She said that 135 applicants have sought affordable housing in the scheme. “Having regard to the existing database and current enquiries, it is expected that the number of qualifying applicants will exceed the number of units available.”Councillor McCafferty said that there is already “an abundance of …

CLARE County Council are set to spend more than €7 million (before VAT) on building affordable housing in Cluain Airne and, despite the ongoing correction in the property market, they expect the scheme to sell out.At this week’s meeting of Shannon Town Council, Councillor Cathy McCafferty put forward a motion asking for the unit cost of an affordable home at the site. In response, town manager Bernadette Kinsella said, “The contract construction prices is €7,005,236.59, exclusive of VAT, for the total scheme of 60 houses. This figure will be adjusted to reflect the type of house and to include consultants’ fees, legal fees and any other associated costs to arrive at a final unit cost.”She said that 135 applicants have sought affordable housing in the scheme. “Having regard to the existing database and current enquiries, it is expected that the number of qualifying applicants will exceed the number of units available.”Councillor McCafferty said that there is already “an abundance of …

THE introduction of water charges should be strongly resisted, possibly through civil disobedience, according to Councillor Gerry Flynn.The Independent TD said that the Irish people are too compliant and that it may be a legacy of centuries of oppression. “Maybe it comes from hundreds of years of British rule, that we go along with whatever our lords and masters in Dublin tell us.”He said that John Gormley should be told to “shove it where he likes to shove it” and to “go off in his green machine somewhere else”.Councillor Michael Fleming also voiced his opposition to water charges. “I think it’s ridiculous, a lot of senior citizens will be affected,” he said.While Councillor Tony McMahon said that he agreed with the concept of metered charging, it couldn’t possibly be introduced, given the amount of water that is lost. “Forty to 50% of water is being lost and it’s ridiculous to impose charges on the public.”He said that the public already …

A SHANNON mother was thrown into crisis after her family was hit by a gastric bug causing vomiting and diarrhoea, while her house was without running water.Sue Egan was without running water for 10 days and without heating for two, due to persistent freezing conditions earlier this month.She lives in Cúl na Gréine with her nine-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter and they were without running water from January 2 to 13.Things were particularly bad after her son contracted the bug. “On January 9, I had to bring my son to ShannonDoc because he was vomiting and had diarrohea. We needed running water and I called a plumber because I thought it was the pipes, not the mains. He couldn’t fix it though.”Sue also contracted the bug and while they have had running water back for some time now, on Tuesday, they were still without it in the upstairs part of their home.Also on Tuesday, Shannon got its regular water supply …

THE odds of getting a local authority house in the Shannon Electoral area are mighty slim at the moment.

SHANNON water supply is to flow an hour earlier from this Thursday, as the county council bowed to calls from local councillors to ease the rationing of supplies in response to severe water loss during the big freeze.

NO development should go ahead that would prevent a rail link between Shannon and the main Limerick/Galway line from being built in the future, according to the Mid-West Draft Regional Planning Guidelines 2010-22.

SHANNON finished in 20th position out of 60 towns and cities surveyed in the latest Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey.   While Shannon came in 13th position last summer, the An Taisce assessors still felt the town had performed well.“Another good result. Half of the sites surveyed in Shannon were clean to European norms, with the remainder moderately littered. “Some of the top ranking sites included Ballycasey Business Park, Bóthar Mór Approach and Bóthar an Aerphort Approach. The Newmarket-on-Fergus approach road just missed getting the top litter grade. The town centre was moderately littered and care needs to be taken to ensure it doesn’t deteriorate.”Five of the 10 parts of town surveyed were said to be clean to European norms. One of these was St Aidan’s school, which was praised in the report. “This was a very good site. It was clear of all litter and very well maintained,” it stated.The report was also positive about Finian Park. “Despite …