Potter’s clay, sticking point for planner

A CLARE County Council planner has questioned a submission from a North Clare potter, which refers to an alleged extraction of clay in proximity to Doolin Cave and the planner has advised the matter be “investigated through the enforcement process”.

A CLARE County Council planner has questioned a submission from a North Clare potter, which refers to an alleged extraction of clay in proximity to Doolin Cave and the planner has advised the matter be “investigated through the enforcement process”.
The issue came to the attention of executive planner Anne Marie Hennelly in a planning application for the development of a studio at the Doolin Cave site where a Doolin potter submitted unsolicited additional information leading the planner to believe that clay extraction “is occurring at present”.
Ms Hennelly cited comments made by Caireann Browne in additional information where she states “the removal of clay is all done by hand so it has no further impact to the cave and there is no pollution caused by diggers. I am using roughly 25kg of clay a month”.
The planner noted that these statements would lead her “to believe that extraction of clay from this site and cave is occurring at present, this represents unauthorised development and this matter shall be investigated through the enforcement process as a matter of urgency”.
Planning permission was granted in the last week to Doolin Cave Co Ltd, c/o John and Helen Browne, for the development of a single-storey studio at the Doolin Cave site subject to six conditions. One of these conditions is that “clay from the subject site shall not be used as a material for the construction of the proposed building or for use in the proposed pottery studio”.
In addition, the local authority further advised this grant of permission “relates solely to the use of the subject land for the construction of one single-storey studio building including connections to existing site services and does not infer any grant of permission for the extraction of materials at this location”.
Additional information was submitted by Caireann Browne, the daughter of the applicants, prior to the granting of planning permission. She said this document was written in reply to queries about the removal of clay from Doolin Cave and stated, “I was also concerned as to whether there would be any environmental issues in removing the clay so before I started work, I asked Professor John Gunn (geologist) about the scientific importance of the clay”.
She said she was informed that her “extraction would not be a problem as long as I dig it out in a trench or trenches. This way, I am leaving clay on either side of the passage, which can be sampled and used for analysis at a later date. Also, I sieve the clay and if I find anything that might be of interest, I keep it for inspection”.
Ms Browne added that she would not be using the cave clay for building the cob studio “because of the large amounts that would need to be taken out of the cave. I do not need high-quality clay to build with. It would be far more suitable logistically to dig clay from the field where I hope to build.”
An environmental impact assessment for the removal of clay from Doolin Cave was submitted by Professor John Gunn on behalf of the owners and operators of Doolin Cave, Mr and Mrs J Browne. In this document, Professor Gunn states it is proposed to remove 25kg per month of clay from a passage at the southern end of the main chamber and it is proposed to extract the clay by hand along a trench.
He outlined the rate it was proposed to extract the clay and claimed that based on these calculations, it would have “a negligible environmental impact and will leave ample clay for any future study”.
He noted that such extraction would make the deposit “more accessible” for researchers and would also have the potential to discover new cave passages.
In his conclusion, Professor Gunn stated, “There are no environmental grounds for refusing the application”.
In granting planning permission for the studio, senior executive planner, Helen Quinn warned, “The extraction of clay from the cave may constitute development for which planning permission may be required and advised the applicant to contact the planning authority in this regard”.