Concern over alleged planning breach

MEMBERS of the Cronan Membership Association attended this week’s meeting of Shannon area county councillors to voice concerns about an alleged breach of planning conditions in the area.
They claim that a condition imposed on a planning application granted five years ago has not been complied with.
Jim Duffy of the group claimed residents have had to deal with an excessive amount of traffic in their area for a number of years because of a failure by Jim Woods Building Contractor to comply with a condition attached to the decision to grant him planning permission for a residential development in 2006.
Mr Duffy claimed that a temporary access onto Cronan Grove/Cronan Lawn was supposed to be closed upon the opening of the Southern Primary Road in 2007. He said residents are now left dealing with “an astronomical amount of traffic”.
“People are greatly concerned. It’s the main route for children going to St Caimin’s and St Conaire’s and it’s getting worse,” he added.
Mr Duffy said An Bord Pleanála had also ruled that the access road in question would be closed after the opening of the new access road.
He referred to a number of documents at the meeting, including a warning letter sent by the council to Jim Woods Building Contractor Ltd in May of last year. He also produced a copy of a letter from the contractor to the council written in June of last year.
It stated that complying with the condition would mean contravening conditions attached to another application.
“Following on from my meeting with Ellen Carey, the area planner for Shannon on 24/5/2010, I would like to outline the primary reasons as to why it is currently not practical or possible to carry out condition 7 of planning application P05/1724.
“When this condition was made as part of P05/1724 in 2005, Shannon Development were in control of the land. The land was then transferred to Clare County Council and then sold at auction to the public in September 2008.
“This meant that the planning condition was now associated with land outside of the builder and Clare County Council’s control as it was auctioned to the public. This, in effect, makes the condition illegal as anyone could be in control of the land that the road was requested to be constructed on.
“The land in question now has planning under P08/876 and as per conditions numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 27, 30 and 31, no development can take place until all these conditions have been fully complied with.
“If condition 7 of P05/1724 is complied with, this would mean carrying out unauthorised development and breaching 14 planning conditions of P08/876, leading to a series of enforcement notices being served for unauthorised development,” the letter concluded.
Mr Duffy said the planning condition had been breached for four years and they are urging the local authority to issue an enforcement notice.
“Nobody is above the law when it comes to planning, neither residents or developers,” he commented.
Councillor Gerry Flynn said he was disappointed that no representative of the council’s planning section was at the meeting. However, Shannon town manager, Bernadette Kinsella said it would not be normal practice for them to attend in the circumstances.
Councillor Patricia McCarthy raised concerns about the situation and when it was proposed that a meeting be held on the matter, she said it would be appropriate to have the director of planning in attendance.