This article is from page 7 of the 2008-02-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 7 JPG
mY be Bradley said the plan’s objective was “to bring life to the town centre in Shannon and to bring new invest- ments and opportunities. It’s hoped to attract major investors into the area. It’s not a short-term fix. This vision is for a 10- to 15-year period.” Asked what the spin-off for the town would be, the senior planner said that, in the short term, it was “creating an economy and we very much want to link in with the airport and try to obtain a slice of the airport market which at present bypasses the Kena tee He believes the promised 1,000 jobs are most likely to be in the services, information economy and financial
services sectors.
He revealed that there were “al- ready commitments from three large interested parties to create a number of jobs in the short term, apart from the construction jobs that will be in- volved”.
The public has two weeks to make their suggestions to their local repre- sentatives, before the elected mem- bers consider incorporating the lands involved into a variation to the local area plan.
After that, formal submissions can be made through the planning proc- ess. Almost 140 people attended the briefing to hear details of the plan about which they had previously been asked to make suggestions.
Hugh Murray said that the “main preoccupation of the public submis- sions was to create a living town cen- tre with mixed use”.
The plan for the 90-acre town cen- tre development will involve a pro- posal to create up to 1,000 jobs over an extended time frame of up to 10- 15 years.
Among the proposals set out in the newly drafted master plan is the provision of a new main street, pedestrianised shopping precinct, town square, Civic Arts Centre, ho- tel, three-hectare civic park, primary school, medical care facility, school of enterprise and a light rail link.