Tag Archives: county council

SHANNON’S flood defences are not adequate, and unless €14.6 million is invested, a massive €693 million worth of damage could result. That is the conclusion of the report on the Shannon Town and Airport embankments, carried out on behalf of Clare County Council, the Office of Public Works and Shannon Group. The report warns, “There are considerable concerns regarding the adequacy of the existing embankment flood defences fronting both Shannon Town and Airport. The findings of the investigations undertaken for this report confirm that these concerns are justified. The embankments do not provide an adequate standard of protection from flooding from the Shannon Estuary.” It said that because of the hydraulic connectivity between the town and the airport, and the common flood risk, measures should be taken jointly by the three bodies. Regarding what works should be carried out, the report says, “The preferred method of providing an appropriate standard of defence to the two frontages is by the raising, …

WHILE a Bord Pleanála inspector actually recommended that Clare County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for an Aldi store in Shannon be overturned, his own board have rejected his conclusion and have denied planning. It seems to be the end of the road for the proposal for the Aldi store, something that many local people would consider to be a step in the right direction for the town and a step towards developing a conventional streetscape. In his report, Inspector Rónán O’Connor wrote, “I do not consider that the provision of the convenience retail store would diminish the range of services within Shannon Town Centre but rather would be complementary to same. This would, in turn, increase the attractiveness of Shannon Town Centre with a potential reduction in vacancy rates in the town.” He found that the development would increase competition within the town, which would also be in keeping with national retail policy. There is not another alternative …

CLARE County Council have said that the depth of snow has generally varied from 10-20cm, but it has been deeper on elevated ground in the north and east of the county. There are reports of drifting in some places, and it says that it expects many roads to be impassable. While the N67 at Corkscrew Hill was impassable for 48 hours, it expects this situation to improve soon. Eighteen calls were made to its helpline up to 9.30am this morning, while the local authority is still advising people to stay at home unless absolutely necessary. The Council has five snow ploughs, that it says are currently engaged on clearing snow along the county’s national secondary and main regional routes.   Owen Ryan  

Clare County Council, on the advice of the Health Service Executive (HSE), has announced that due to the possibility of elevated levels of bacteria in the bathing water arising from heavy rainfall over the weekend, swimming is still prohibited at Kilkee beach. Public bathing notices and red flags indicating that swimming is prohibited at Kilkee were originally put in place on Wednesday last due to the malfunction of a pumping station which has since been rectified by Irish Water. Staff from the Environment section of Clare County Council conducted water quality tests today (Monday), the results of which will be known on Wednesday. Resumption of swimming will be recommended when results are deemed by the HSE to be within bathing water quality limits.

A cost benefit analysis should be conducted on a proposed twinning arrangement between Clare and a province in China, according to a local councillor. Councillor PJ Kelly has urged Clare County Council to complete a thorough review on the costs and benefits of sending a delegation to Yuman Province, to prevent members ending up like a “shower of fools”. While Councillor Kelly is not opposed to the council’s bid to explore establishing a new twinning arrangement, he stressed the importance of proper planning and research on what the Chinese like to do when they travel abroad, before a decision is made on the trip. While the Lissycasey councillor admitted that the public may not happy with the cost of the trip, he warned they would be even more dissatisfied if the delegation returned without achieving a defined set of objectives. The council has accepted an invitation from the People’s Republic of China to send a delegation to the country later …

CREE based Clean Ireland Recycling have made an appeal to An Bord Pleanála following a decision by Clare County Council to grant planning permission to Emerald Waste Company for a Pay To Use (PTU) waste compactor at Texaco Service Station in Shannon. In its submission to the authority it states, “Clare County Council’s decision to allow this PTU to operate without a pay by weight mechanism, without provision of a brown bin, without a system to track customers (eg smartcards) and without a customer charter will negatively impact on the DECLG’s (Department of Environment, Community and Local Government)  attempts to regulate PTUs. We expect that An Bord Pleanála will have access to the new regulations prior to making a final decision on this application and will be better placed to see the potential impact of a decision to allow this development to proceed as per the applicant’s proposal.” They also raised concerns about the potential safety impact of the development. …

SINCE the storms which wreaked havoc in the early part of the year between €2.5 and €3 million has been spent on clean-up, repair and restoration works in Clare. This information was presented to Clare County Council members in a report at their June meeting, held on Monday. The members discussed progress being made on restoration works and in a report Senior Engineer Tom Tiernan outlined some of the issues being faced by the local authority. “Ultimately a multi-annual programme is required to deal effectively with the extensive and varied instances of coastal damage which occurred in January and February last. In this context an overall programme is required but the Council is limited in its endeavours to collate a firm programme due to the fact that there hasn’t to date been a Government response in relation to coastal strengthening funding applications arising from January’s severe weather events or in respect of the Council’s funding application on foot of February …

MINISTER for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan has announced that €30m will be invested in upgrading the energy efficiency of local authority homes this year.The funding is part of a three year jobs stimulus programme that will see the energy efficiency of 25,000 of the poorest insulated local authority homes improved. Last year, Clare County Council carried out energy efficiency retrofitting on 366 houses. Clare, which had a 2,330 local authority dwelling stock in 2011, will receive a general allocation of €75,000 this year, together with a supplementary allocation of €222,632, based on the proportion of exisating stock, which brings the initial allocation to €297,632. Minister O’Sullilvan said an initial €15m funding should substantially complete the first phase of the insulation programme announced in June 2013 and ensure that every local authority house will have at a minimum draught proofing, attic insulation and where appropriate cavity wall insulation. When Phase 1 is complete a further €15m will be allocated for …