This article is from page 56 of the 2008-01-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 56 JPG
CLARE County Council has turned down planning permission for a tour- ist hostel and 29 homes in the village of Fanore. The Council made the ruling on a submission from Tom Considine af- ter the Council’s Conservation Offic- er, Risteard UaCronin strongly rec- ommended that planning be refused. Mr UaCronin said that the proposal had the potential to do irreparable damage to the archaeological land- scape and visual amenity and the potential to set an unwelcome prec- edent for development in the vicinity of recorded monuments.
He said that the site was located be- tween various archaeological monu- ments including Kilonoghan Church, a graveyard and an archaeological complex containing no less than 25 monuments on the Record of Monu- ments for county Clare.
“The complex is one of the most im- portant collections of archaeological monuments in the country, most of which date from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period. The provision of a housing development in this area would seriously impact on the monu- ments both visually and archaeolog!- cally, would be unsympathetic to the setting of these groups of recorded monuments and contravene the
county development plan.”
“The proposed development is situ- ated on the Burren Coastline over- looking the Aran Islands and on one of the most scenic and popular visi- tor routes in Clare.”
The Council also refused planning because of the lack of a centralised waste-water treatment plant to serve the proposal and ruled that the plan would represent a piecemeal ap- proach to development and would be contrary to proper planning and sustainable development.
The proposal would contravene the development plan objective of providing for the sustainable growth of Fanore and retaining the village’s
unique and distinctive character.
In the planning application, devel- oper Tom Considine, who is a native of the area, claimed that the proposal was designed to create a village feel with a suitable range of uses at the appropriate scale and density with effective and useable links into adja- cent lands to facilitate future devel- opment in the village”.
He maintained that the develop- ment was consistent with the provi- sion of the North Clare Local Area Plan and would encourage “further appropriate development in Fanore”’.
Mr Considine now has the option of appealing the council decision to An Bord Pleanala.