Tag Archives: clare county council

THE founder the Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG) has been sharply critical of the Department of Housing over ongoing delays in access to the financial support scheme.  Further testing is currently being carried out “to satisfy the Department of the linkage between the deterioration of the blockwork and the confirmed presence of pyrite in the samples”, the Council has told The Champion. It follows queries raised by the Department in December, to which the authority responded shortly before Christmas.  Dr Martina Cleary said the Department, which is still the considering the report seeking access to the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, is now asking the Council “to look for a needle in a haystack”. She also questioned why the authority did not test its own housing stock at the start of last year, in tandem with the testing of five private homes located across the county.  The Crusheen woman said both the expert engineer and the testing laboratories engaged by …

LONG after it was first mooted, Clare County Council and the University of Limerick are putting the finishing touches to an application for the creation of a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) in the south east of the county. At Tuesday’s meeting of Shannon Municipal District councillors, Director of Service Liam Conneally said that the Council hopes to be in a position to make the application by the end of this week. Councillor Michael Begley said it is at least two and a half years since it was first considered and he hopes it moves relatively quickly after the application is made. “Hopefully the Minister won’t spend the rest of his tenure deciding.” Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council PJ Ryan complimented the work that was done by the Council executive. “Every time it was mentioned you said work was going on and now we see the fruits of that.” He suggested that Clare’s Oireachtas members be contacted and asked “to put …

THE developers behind a proposed gated community for older people in the heart of Ennis’ town centre have scaled back their initial plans after concerns were raised by the local authority. According to documents lodged with the planning authority, if given the go-ahead the units on Upper O’Connell Street will be managed by D Madigan Properties Ltd and discussions have been held with both the Peter McVerry Group and Cluid Housing about their long-term lease. A planning application lodged by Alan Cummins Ltd had originally sought to construct a two-storey building incorporating six one-bedroom apartments, and a single storey building incorporating six storage sheds to be used in conjunction with the apartments at Upper O’Connell Street. However, these plans have now been reduced to a proposed one-storey building with three one-bed apartments. This comes after Clare County Council sought further information from the developers after highlighting “serious concerns” in relation to the proposed development’s design and its relationship with the …

CONCERNS have been raised by planners over the amount of housing development in Crusheen, given the level of community, educational and commercial services currently available.  The Council outlined that view in a Further Information (FI) request to developers who are seeking permission for the fourth large-scale housing estate in the village in recent years. The authority warned that the intensity of housing development proposed may not be suited to the village.  Woodhaven Developments lodged plans last December for 42 more homes on a site on the Gort side of Crusheen. The company said the estate represented the next phase of a masterplan for lands close to the village centre, that are zoned for mixed use and transport utilities. While Woodhaven said the plan was in line with the target of boosting Crusheen’s population, planners have now warned that appropriate services may not be in place to serve additional housing. In a detailed FI request, planners said that when three housing …

AN application to build a business training complex in rural north Clare has been refused planning permission, writes Owen Ryan. The application made by Jo Irwin Training was for a building that would provide a space for business & management skills training and career/interview coaching purposes at Gleninagh, Ballyvaughan. The building would have used an existing access road and an entrance through the grounds of the family dwelling house. The application said that the training provided could be over a couple of days, at which time the service users would stay in Ballyvaughan and be brought by minibus to the training unit. At other times when training was on a single day, it stated that three cars a day could travel to the development. A planner’s report on the application said that while the Council encourages the provision of training centres “such facilities are more suitably located within rural towns or villages where opportunities for spin-off economic development are more …

AIR pollution levels in Ennis were higher than in Beijing at the weekend with the EPA’s air quality monitoring station showing a significant spike in pollutants, despite a smoky coal ban being in place in the county capital since 2011. Fears this “very harmful” pollution will result in “significant adverse health impacts” has sparked renewed calls from a former Mayor of Ennis for the establishment of an Ennis Clean Air Strategy. On Sunday evening at 7pm the EPA recorded a sharp rise in the levels of particulate matter associated with the burning of solid fuels, almost ten times higher than the EPA’s daily limit. Particulate matter (PM) are minute particles of dust, soot and smoke and the daily limit for PM10 is 50 ug/m3. PM10 of 485.38ug/m3 and PM2.5 of 467.58ug/m3 was recorded in Ennis on Sunday along with sulphar dioxide measuring 67.22ug/m3. On the same day, China’s capital city experienced moderate to good levels of air pollution. Councillor Johnny Flynn …

THE chair of an Ennis retailers group has warned against “blanket pedestrianisation” of the county capital’s town centre saying it would lead to “commercial apartheid”. John O’Connor of Retailers of Ennis was reacting to the release of a survey by Clare County Council this week which showed more than 70% of respondents would like to see some form of pedestrianisation in Ennis ‘immediately’. (See Clare Champion story here) He believes compromise is needed if there are any future plans to make Ennis’ streets car-free. He insists it would need to be carefully planned out, with the needs of business owners and those who need to access those businesses taken into consideration along with increasing parking. Mr O’Connor fears that full pedestrianisation of the town centre would drive people out to the peripheries resulting in a “business desert” in the town. “We have always maintained if you continue with blanket pedestrianisation you reach a situation where you have, in essence, commercial …

LIFEGUARDS in Lahinch performed 43% of all rescues in water-based amenities in the country in 2020, writes Dan Danaher. Councillor Liam Grant has revealed that lifeguards in Lahinch performed more rescues than counties Kerry, Cork, Donegal and Sligo combined last year. Speaking at a meeting of Clare County Council, he outlined Lahinch lifeguards completed 208 out of the 473 water rescues last year. The Green Party councillor called on Clare County Council to provide a fulltime lifeguard service for the month of June at the busiest beaches in the county. “With the increase in popularity of sea swimming and other water sports, there is now a need for lifeguards every day at the most popular beaches during the month of June.” He congratulated Clare McGrath on her appointment as chairperson of Water Safety Ireland, having done so much work to promote water safety in recent decades. The Lahinch councillor said there is a large increase in the number of people …