BS: Clare County Council Planning Dispute

Subject: BS: Clare County Council Planning Dispute
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 19 May 08 - 07:18 AM

I thought readers interested in local Irish affairs may like to read this item which was reported on local radio station, Clare FM this morning:

'Planning dispute stirring in Clare County Council   

Members of Clare County Council are set for a heated confrontation with the County Manager today in the ongoing row over rural planning.



Representatives of the main political groups in the council will meet with Alec Fleming privately, ahead of their adjourned monthly meeting to discuss recent confidential planning agreements, including a 650,000 euro court settlement over a 31 house development in Inagh and a controversial one off application in Corofin.




A possible showdown between Clare County Council and its members was averted last week, when councillors withdrew a threat to invoke special powers to compel the County Manager to grant planning permission for a home to be built outside Corofin, after the council chose to grant the application in a material contravention of the County Development Plan.



But Councillors are still annoyed at the circumstances surrounding other planning applications, including a reported 645 thousand euro High Court settlement in a judicial review of a failed bid to build 31 houses at Ballyduffbeg, Inagh where a similar application has since been granted.


Members are frustrated by the secrecy surrounding the case, and other rural planning anomalies in general.



With ongoing public disquiet on one off housing applications throughout Clare, councillors now in fear that a failure to find resolution could see many of them struggling to keep their seats in the upcoming local elections.

Article read: 329 times'