Councillors vote to withhold Blake’s Corner report

THE future of Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon remains shrouded in mystery after four out of five North Clare councillors called for a consultant’s report on the landmark to be kept from them.
At Monday’s meeting of the area councillors, the controversial corner was on the agenda. However, despite the availability of a consultant’s report on its future development, all but one of the local public representatives requested that Clare County Council officials withhold the report from them and the public until it becomes part of a Part 8 planning application at an unknown date later this year or early next year.
The only dissenting voice at the meeting was that of Ruan councillor, Joe Arkins, who repeatedly requested it be recorded that he was seeking the report to be circulated among elected members.
Last year, Clare County Council commissioned the report, which according to Tom Tiernan, senior engineer, cost the local authority in the region of €15,000.
“The objective would have been to come up with an approach that would deal satisfactorily with various points of view, [taking into account] the heritage value of the buildings and that the junction needs to be modified to accommodate traffic and, obviously, there are public safety issues at the junction,” he explained.
Mr Tiernan was present at the September North Clare meeting to give an update on the report.
“The update on that is that we have a report that gives us some direction on where to go from here, a report by specialist consultants that looks at the building and Ennistymon town in culture and heritage terms and makes an evaluation of the buildings that are there,” he outlined.
While he said the report “gives some options”, “the bottom line recommendation would be that the building be deconstructed and reconstructed”.
“It acknowledges the heritage values in a significant number of the components within the building and the idea would be to replicate the building further back,” Mr Tiernan continued.
“I think the recommendation that comes out of all that is rational and reasonable and represents a balanced outcome in terms of both key objectives that needed to be achieved in this,” he stated. However, the terms of reference of the report were only circulated to members after the meeting.
Mr Tiernan added that he believed a Part 8 planning permission could be completed by the end of the year.
Fine Gael Councillor Bill Slattery said the cost of deconstructing and reconstructing the buildings “sounds very excessive”. Mr Tiernan said it “is very difficult to put a cost on this” but added that the price of construction projects has gone down in the recession.
Councillor Arkins said he is “concerned that there appeared to be a dragging of feet on this issue”. He noted that the report had “come to hand around January but there were issues to be completed on it that dragged on to September”.
“One wonders how it takes that long to complete a report?” he mused.
Councillor Arkins asked for the report to be circulated. He said he is anxious to see a solution to what he called “an ongoing health and safety issue” at the corner.
Councillor Richard Nagle, however, proposed that the report be withheld from councillors until such time as the Part 8 application is ready.
“I would ask that the preparation of the Part 8 would be treated as a priority. The buildings are listed structures but the only people who seem to be ignored in all this are the general public, who have to access to that junction every day of the week,” he commented.
Councillor Michael Kelly, chairman of the North Clare area committee, said, “Everyone here wants a positive conclusion to this. The view emanating from this meeting is that we need a date” for the completion of a Part 8 application.
His Fianna Fáil colleague, Councillor Michael Hillery also called for a date for the Part 8 application to be available. “I would like to see dates and times. It is going on too long. It is going on donkeys years. It is time it is resolved. We will wait for a Part 8 and then hopefully get funding and get it completed,” he said.
Councillor Arkins asked again for the report to be circulated to members.
“We have to take the cloak and dagger out of this. If the report was done by experts it should stand up to scrutiny,” he said.
“This was completed in October 2010. Surely they [consultants] looked at every angle, dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘t’. We are in a serious situation if we try to create the impression that this report should not be circulated to members,” Councillor Arkins commented.
Councillor Arkins added that he had sought the report at the February/March meeting and at two meetings after that but it had still not been forthcoming.
Councillor Slattery said he understood the report only concerned the conservation of the buildings and releasing it to the public, or even releasing it to members it later transpired, would be premature as “at the moment it is only suiting the conservation people”. The Lahinch councillor stated he wanted to “wait for full details of the Part 8 application”.
Councillor Kelly added, “Everyone will be aware of absolutely everything” at that stage.
Mr Tiernan reassured councillors that the report is completed and will form part of any planning application in relation to the site.
“To my mind, to let it out there now doesn’t contextualise the whole thing properly. Normally, part of planning applications don’t go out for public perusal until the entire application is out there,” he went on.
“I would have concerns that this report would become the subject of unbalanced debate,” Mr Tiernan continued.
Councillor Nagle asked for a date for the Part 8 and said he felt it is crucial that the issues surrounding the junction are brought to a resolution, again stressing his concerns about health and safety at the junction.
“If there was a plebiscite taken on this issue, the vast majority of people in the Ennistymon area, and indeed in North Clare, would vote for any proposal that would improve the traffic situation and the health and safety issue at the junction,” he asserted.
“There has to be a reality check here and there is no one trying to deny anyone anything but the whole lot should be given out as a package,” Councillor Nagle added.
Councillor Arkins again said he believed that “after 12 months the report should be able to stand scrutiny”. He again asked that the report be circulated.
However, Councillor Richard Nagle proposed that the report not be released to the members or to the public until all the information on the council’s plans for the junction are released.
This was seconded by Councillor Slattery, before the discussion on Blake’s Corner was closed with Councillor Arkins, for a fourth and final time, stressing that as an elected member of the local authority he was requesting that the report be circulated.