This article is from page 6 of the 2005-11-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
AN EAST Clare woman suffering from the chronic fatigue syndrome ME has suffered a major setback in preventing her house being demol- ished.
An Bord Pleanala has refused permission to Denise Mitchell of Aughinish, Ogonnelloe to retain the demountable house she erected without planning permission.
Clare County Council has served enforcement proceedings on Ms Mitchell, and the local authority can now request her to restore the site to
its original condition.
Ms Mitchell did not inform the council of her medical condition, but in a supporting letter to An Bord Pleanala, Dr Genevieve McGuire of the Scariff Medical Centre said, “This lady is suffering from myal- gic enphelopathy/chronic fatigue syndrome.
‘She tells me that she is hyper- sensitive to all forms of chemical pollution and, for this reason, has chosen to live in the relatively clean atmosphere of Aughinish, Ogonel- loe, Co. Clare.”
The board inspector “reluctantly”
recommended that planning permis- sion be refused. He stated that there was “no argument that the proposed development is obtrusive or impact- ing negatively on amenities. I con- sider it to be benign in impact with regard to the visual amenities of the area’.
However, the board ruled that the site of the proposed development was located in the vulnerable lake shore environs of Lough Derg, in an area identified in the Clare County Development Plan 2005 as under pressure from urban generated de- velopment.
“Tt is the policy of the planning authority, as set out in the Develop- ment Plan, to limit new residential development in this rural area to serve the permanent housing needs of local rural persons,” the inspec- tor continued.
“Tt is considered that the applicant does not come within the housing need criteria of the planning author- AA
The appeals board also ruled that “the proposed development would endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard, because access to the site 1s by way of a poorly surfaced,
substandard, narrow lane, which is unsuitable to serve additional hous- ing development”.
Councillor Brian Meaney (GP) said this week that he was disap- pointed for Ms Mitchell, but added, “The law is the law and changes should be made to the planning acts to deal with situations like this, though that would prove quite dif- Cove
“Enforcement has been generally haphazard and because you have a medical condition shouldn’t grant you a licence to breach planning Wise