This article is from page 8 of the 2007-05-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
NORTH Clare community groups will be prohibited from ‘hounding’ Clare County Council for top-up funding should they fall short in capital for developing playgrounds, it was decided at yesterday’s local area meeting of Clare County Council in Ennistymon.
A motion put forward by Cllr Flan Garvey (FF), proposed that Corofin playground would be granted one off top-up funding of €12,000 from the 2008 Playground Grant Scheme (PGS), but that no future proposal for extra funding for playgrounds would be entertained.
The proposal came following a dis- cussion from the council as to which playground should benefit from some €§3,000 available under the PGS for 2007. New playgrounds in Lahinch, Ballyvaughan and Kilmaley all made applications for the funding as well as the Corofin playground which re- ceived some €50,000 last year.
‘“T’m very clear in my conscience that our commitment this year is to Lahinch. I would suggest that we al- locate the €12,000 to Corofin out of next year’s funding,” said Garvey. “If committees know they can come back to us every year if they over- spend then they will be coming back and hounding us year after year.
“As from next year, no-one will
get extra funding should they over- spend.”
An informal decision was made last year to prioritise the Lahinch play- ground, which is being developed in parallel with a major council devel- opment on the village’s promenade.
“T have no problem with Corofin getting more funding we would first need to find out how much it would take to complete the playground in Lahinch. We don’t want to have a half finished playground in Lahinch. There cannot have a finished play- eround without money. We gave a commitment to Lahinch last year, a unanimous commitment from this committee,” said Cllr Richard Nagle (FF).
“The playground committee and local community in Lahinch have en- gaged in a load of fundraising events which have raise some €50,000. Everything is in place to proceed, with a view to the community sup- port and the commitment that we gave last year. I think we should pro- eTere Ma Laem ore Lie
After lengthy discussion it was de- cided that the Lahinch playground would receive the full allocation of this year’s funding, with Corofin to receive an amount of funding from the 2008 budget. Other playgrounds, such as in Ballyvaughan and Kilma- ley will also be considered for fund- ing in 2008.