This article is from page 62 of the 2008-05-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 62 JPG
CLARE County Council’s policy of banning holiday homes across the county has become even more ex- treme with the local authority over- ruling its own planner to prevent any further holiday homes in Bally- vaughan.
Last month, the council granted planning permission to Kevin Tuo- hy to construct 44 homes in Bal- Ivaughan. In the planner’s report, it was recommended that 19 of the
houses be used as holiday homes, with 20 as permanent residences and five to be used as affordable homes. The planner cited an application lodged in 2005 proposing that a pro- portion of homes be used as holiday homes and said it was reasonable to approach the use of the Tuohy devel- opment homes in a similar manner. However, the planner was overruled by the council and all homes must be used for permanent occupancy, though it is unclear if the Clare County Development Plan proposes
that there should be a ban on holiday homes in the county.
The council granted planning per- mission on the basis that the develop- ment should not commence until the water system 1s upgraded.
This decision has been appealed by Pauline Burke of the Ballyvaughan Lodge who described the design of the houses as “a perfect example of the architectural banality that is spreading like a disease across Ire- land”.
“A cursory review of the Bal-
lyvaughan area will show that the houses that were for sale at the time of our original objection in July 2007 are still for sale. There are approxi- mately 300 permanent residents in Ballyvaughan and this development seeks to increase this by at least 50 per cent – an unsustainable figure in reality.
“Given these statistics, it 1s clear that the developers intend to market the development as holiday accommo- dation. We do not feel that this is in keeping with the current Government
policy on development in villages in the west of Ireland and not in keeping with recent high-profile similar cases in Liscannor and Doolin.”
Elsewhere in her appeal, Ms Burke states that employment in Bally- vaughan cannot sustain its popu- lation and thus commuting is the norm. The N67 bears the majority, if not all, of this traffic and is already at breaking point. The road in ques- tion is full to capacity and congested all day every day. A decision is due on the appeal later this year.