This article is from page 26 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
PLANS by Ennis Town Council to create an amenity park around the site of the well-known Rocky Road area in Ennis have been put on hold. Local landowners had threatened court injunction proceedings over the proposal.
Earlier this year, the town coun- cil lodged plans with Clare County Council that would have involved the creation of a new paved entrance pla- Za, new circulation paths and railing along the stream edge, installation of low stone seat walls and sign walls. The plan would also have included the provision of street furniture; bicycle stands, a dolmen and rocky outcrop, grading of ground levels, tree and shrub planting, grassing and ancillary landscaping works.
A decision was due on the applica- tion last month.
However, the county council failed to make a decision after landowners George Gallery and Patricia Gallery Ryan threatened injunctive proceed- ings unless the council agreed to meet with their legal representa- tives.
In a submission to the council by Kerin, Hickman and O’Donnell so- licitors, the Gallerys state that “the proposed development flies in the face of the facts, which is not ac- ceptable under any circumstances as it is contrary to the established legal rights and interests that our clients have used for generations without interference, interruption or ob- struction”.
The Gallerys’ solicitors threatened that if the council failed to get in touch with them within 14 days of the letter “our instructions are to 1m- mediately issue injunction proceed- ings against Clare County Council
and Ennis Town Council without further notice and our clients shall be seeking an indemnity from the councils in relation to the costs in- volved in same”’.
The council was due to make a decision within that 14 day period. However a decision is still awaited on the proposal.
In 2001, a campaign to prevent the Western Relief Road of the €200 million Ennis bypass going through the Rocky Road failed after the then Minister for the Environment, Noel Dempsey, confirmed the Compul- sory Purchase Order (CPO) for the route.
Some 1,800 people put their names to submissions objecting to the by- pass cutting the Rocky Road 1n two. But their pleas only resulted in a roundabout originally planned to be located on the Rocky Road itself be- ing moved 30 metres to the west.