Council hopes to adopt Chinese twin

THE Banner County isn’t known for its very close ties to China but Clare County Council are hoping to rectify this.

In the planning section of its 2013 budget document, it says the council is looking at establishing a twinning with a Chinese region.

The document mentions the twinning of Ennis and Newry, the links with the Clare Valley in Australia and then states, “The council is also exploring a possible twinning arrangement with a community in China. This follows the very successful visit of the vice-premier of China to Clare in 2012 when he visited the Cliffs of Moher and suggested that links should be established between County Clare and a region in China. Work is ongoing in this area.”

With regard to the Cliffs of Moher, it states, “The operation of the Cliffs of Moher visitor experience proved satisfactory in 2012. There are a significant number of issues, which require to be addressed at the site including an upgrade of the visitor exhibition which has been in place for over six years now as well as improvements to the car park at the site. The present financial environment makes it difficult to allocate the resources that would be required to satisfactorily address these areas. However, it is hoped to achieve some upgrades of the Cliffs exhibition during 2013. The Cliffs of Moher, as a visitor attraction, also intends to play an active role in the promotion of the additional services through Shannon Airport and hopes to partner with Tourism Ireland in this regard. The Cliffs will also play a full role in the Clare Gathering programme for 2013.

“Work is nearing completion also on a further major addition to tourism product in the area with the completion of the Cliffs coastal walk, which will facilitate a quality walking route along the Cliffs from Doolin to Hags Head. Sections of this walk have been in use for some time and the new tourism product has been very favourably commented on.”

Councillor Gerry Flynn said access to the walk shouldn’t be charged for and he claimed the public’s enjoyment of it had been compromised “for the sake of commercialism”.

The document also stated work is being done to promote tourism to Clare, during the year of the Gathering. “There is a very strong emphasis in 2013 on the promotion of festivals and events as part of the Gathering programme. A number of funding schemes have been made available including the Gathering community fund (county allocation €30k), the IPB Gathering fund (county allocation €25k) and a festival and events funding scheme under the LEADER programme operated by Clare Local Development Company. The council has also made a budgetary provision to commence the funding requirements necessary to host the national Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann should Ennis be successful in its application to host this very important event in 2014,” the document stated.