This article is from page 8 of the 2008-08-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
CLARE County Council is set to refuse planning permission for a €50 million retail park adjacent to the Ennis by-pass.
With a formal decision due later today, a council source has indicated that the application by Galway devel- oper, Stephen Harris for a retail park at Skehanagh, Clarecastle is about to be turned down.
Mr Harris has encountered major hurdles in the planning process over the past two years after €18 million was paid to Clarecastle man, JJ Mc- Cabe for the 48 acre commercially zoned site.
Only last week, it emerged that the Department of the Environment made a late intervention to reject the plan because of nature conservation concerns. This related to the fate of the protected butterfly, the Marsh Fritillary which has disappeared from the site due to grazing and
flooding.
The expected refusal will come as a surprise as an independent report commissioned by the council con- cluded that the Harris site at Ske- hanagh, Clarecastle was better po- sitioned to secure planning ahead of a proposal by Ennis developers Sean Dy piler Wem Com Oeiioeevie
However, the local planning land- scape deteriorated in the meantime with a subsequent council report de- claring portion of the Harris site as being at risk to flooding.
It is not known how this has fac- tored into the final decision, but it seems certain to have featured in the planners deliberations as the Depart- ment of the Environment also flagged it as an issue.
The local authorities in the Ennis area have also rejected any future residential or commercial develop- ment pending the commissioning of anew €75 million sewage treatment plant which is not expected to be in
place until 2012.
Ennis Town Council has recently refused developments as small as 26 units and a €50 million retail park 1s expected to be a much bigger burden on the local infrastructure.
Plans for the 48 acre site included a retail warehouse park, motor sales village, Travelodge hotel, drive-thru restaurants, storage and distribution, and a petrol station. The develop- ment was to provide over 30,000 m2 commercial floorspace
Planning was only being sought for the retail park in the south-east quad- rant of the site but the council had already expressed serious concerns over the proposal.