Tag Archives: clare county council

A MOVE is being made to transform the site of the former Ennis Boys National School on the Kilrush Road in Ennis into a new car park, the Clare Champion can reveal. City Cinemas Ltd are set to apply to Clare County Council for planning permission to develop a new temporary surface car park with 156 spaces in the county capital. The planning application will seek a five year permission for the development which will also include 12 accessible bays and four electric vehicle parking bays. The town centre site has been vacant since 2013 when Ennis National School moved to its new school in Ashline. The Kilrush Road site is zoned as mixed use and has been identified as one of a number of Opportunity Sites in the current County Development Plan. The planned development of a new car park for Ennis comes hot on the heels of Clare County Council recently giving the green light to Clare GAA …

GREEN Senator Róisín Garvey has called on Clare County Council to “do better” in terms of using funds allocated for cycling and walking infrastructure. The Inagh woman highlighted figures released by the National Transport Authority (NTA) showing that 81.3% of funds allocated to Clare under the Active Travel Fund were not spent last year. “In Clare our local authority was allocated €5,986,000 for walking and cycling projects in the Clare County for the year 2021,” Senator Garvey, Green Party Spokesperson for Rural Development and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said. “However, according to figures released by the NTA, only €1,113,509 of this was spent. We need to do better for our community. It is understandable that the significant increase in funding since 2019 requires increased capacity, and there have been many additional challenges for our local authority during Covid. However, funding has also been provided for a new Travel Officer role, dedicated to local walking and cycling projects and we need …

AN Ennistymon company has been refused planning permission to retain two electronic signs descried as “a travesty and a blot on the landscape”. An objection from a local resident had been very critical of the signs and their “lurid animation” at Daktronics Ireland Ltd premises in the Deerpark Industrial Estate in the town. “Their huge LED sign is an eyesore and a blight not only on the town of Ennistymon but also on the surrounding countryside,” the submission stated. “It was built without permission, illegally, and should not be allowed to be retrospectively allowed considering the phenomenal detrimental effect it has on the surrounding area,” he claimed. The objection added, “I myself live across the valley from the site and the huge LED sign is bright enough at night to cast a shadow in my bedroom and its repeated lurid animations are both distracting and disturbing.  “Throughout the whole of last winter their sign caused me unnecessary stress as I …

AN Bord Pleanála has been urged to overturn Clare County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for a multi-million Euro housing scheme in Lahinch. The council recently turned down plans for the development of seven detached four-bedroom dwelling houses with detached sheds at School Road, Attycristora, Lahinch. Associated site development works included wastewater pre-treatment and connections to public services. A Natura Impact Statement was also submitted on behalf of the developers, SPL Property Limited, Saint Flannan’s View, Ennis. This was the applicant’s second application for the proposed development at this site, which sought to address the council’s concerns raised in a Further Information Request in relation to the previous application. In this subsequent application, the applicant’s design team revisited the layout and as indicated in the Senior Executive Planner’s Report dated July 1, 2022, the council’s concerns were successfully addressed in relation to a number of aspects. These included drainage attenuation, boundary treatment, pedestrian infrastructure, construction traffic, management, water capacity, …

THE CATHAOIRLEACH of Clare County County Council made his television debut in the United States this week promoting tourism in the Banner county. Councillor Tony O’Brien was a guest on the Fox 6 News Breakfast Show in Milwaukee on Thursday morning ahead of the annual Irish Fest in Wisconsin’s state capital. The Killaloe councillor packed plenty of promotion into his 4.30 second slot with presenter Kim Murphy, espousing the delights of every part of Clare to his receptive host. Councillor O’Brien was keen to emphasise also that visitors should fly into Shannon, a point he made more than once. The catharoirleach is part of a tourism delegation led by Clare County Council and members of the Clare Tourism Advisory Forum that is promoting the Banner County as a desirable visitor destination to over 120,000 festival goers at Milwaukee Irish Fest this weekend. In the biggest international tourism promotion of County Clare since before the pandemic, 11 representatives of the local …

AFTER an initial delay, an application for planning permission for the construction of a new €25 million community hospital in Ennis to replace long stay and short stay beds at St Joseph’s has been lodged with Clare County Council. The HSE had initially lodged a planning application for the development at the beginning of August. The Council, however, deemed the application ‘incomplete’ as the site notice had not been erected and dated within two weeks prior to lodgement. A new application has now been made for the development at lands at Clonroadmore, South-East of Turnpike Road and North-West of St Flannan’s College in Ennis. According to the plans the development will consist of: the construction of a part two-storey, part single-storey 100 bed residential community nursing unit (CNU) including; main entrance foyer block; production kitchens; offices; plant room; courtyard gardens with ancillary support accommodation and an enclosed gated delivery yard incorporating a maintenance building and generator. The development will also …

THE PLANNING appeals board has waded into the controversy surrounding the issue of ‘in-fill’ sites in rural Clare.  These are gap sites that are created where housing is built on either side. Under existing planning policy, those applying to build a house on an in-fill site can bypass certain restrictions including the requirement to prove a local housing need that applies to areas designated as being under strong urban pressure.  In a recent decision, An Bord Pleanála rejected a bid by a couple to build a house on a gap site around 1.5km from Lissycasey and 13km from Ennis. The board ruled the site, between two existing homes, was too large to be considered an in-fill. This meant that the applicants needed to demonstrate a local housing need, and their application had failed to do so. The decision copper-fastened the Council’s original refusal of planning permission.  Assessing the appeal, lodged on behalf of the couple by an agent based in …

CLARE County Council has granted planning permission to the controversial €450-million Ennis data centre near the Tulla Road. Art Data Centre Campus in Ennis has become the first to be approved following publication of the Government’s new data centre policy. The data centre has been four years moving through various stages including strategic site assessment, zoning and planning. Developers claim it will create between 400-450 permanent jobs when the data centre campus is fully operational. Up to 1,200 will be employed in construction and 600 jobs in support services. The new Government Policy Statement on the role of Data Centres in Ireland’s Enterprise Strategy was published on Wednesday July 27 and the Ennis Campus is considered to align well with the policies set out therein. Mr Tom McNamara, CEO of Art Data Centres, the developer of the project, welcomed the announcement. “This is great news for this data centre campus and for Clare as the project will be a key …