Lease looks set to be signed on new playground

A LONG-awaited playground for North Clare seems a step closer this week after an appropriate site was identified by Clare County Council in Lahinch.
The council looks set to sign a long-term lease with Lahinch Seaworld for a plot of land adjacent to the building on which a playground and additional parking will be located.
The Lahinch Community Playground Committee has been campaigning for the provision of a playground in the village for the past three years and has raised, according to local councillors, upward of €70,000. Three sites were discounted because they did not meet certain criteria.
The site will cost Clare County Council €15,000 per year but it is expected that the additional car parking spaces will come close to covering the cost of this. Clare County Council granted the committee planning permission for the playground late last year.
Ennistymon councillor Richard Nagle has welcomed the project’s progress. “It was envisaged that Lahinch would have a playground back in 2008 but because of the difficulties encountered, it has proved to be a very slow and frustrating process,” he told The Clare Champion.
He believes the playground would “develop the tourism product in Lahinch” and “will mean that Lahinch and surrounding parishes will have a playground which they have not had up to now”.
“It will also boost the number of people, both locals and tourists, visiting Lahinch and will therefore increase revenue for businesses in the resort and for Clare County Council in terms of parking revenue.”