This article is from page 17 of the 2011-09-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
CLARE County Council is to go ahead with a plan to demolish and rebuild the historic listed buildings at Blakes Corner in Ennistymon, with a Part 8 planning request likely to be completed before the end of this year.
This follows the completion of a report which recommends the demolition and reconstruction of the building to make space for a new road design at the dangerous junction.
It is unclear whether the report will be circulated to councillors before the Part 8 planing permission is formally lodged, despite repeated calls from Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) to take the “cloak and dagger” out of the development of Blakes Corner.
“I am concerned that there is a perception out there that we are dragging out feet on this,” said Cllr Arkins (FG). “We need to take the cloak and dagger out of this – for once and for all. If this report is done, and the people who have compiled this report are experts, then it should be able to stand up to scrutiny. The report has been done for almost a year now and I have asked for this to be circulated to elected members a number of times going back to last February or March.”
Cllr Arkins also asked that his latest request for the report to be circulated to all elected members be formally marked on the meeting of yesterday’s North Clare Area meeting. Despite these protests, it is unclear whether the report will be made public before it is included in the official Part 8 planning documentation.
“To my mind, to let the report out now properly contextualise the whole development process. I would have a concern that this report could become the subject of unbalanced debate because it is not accompanied by other documentation,” said senior engineer at Clare County Council, Tom Tiernan.
Cllr Arkins urged the local authority to reconsider this approach saying that if there were any flaws in the report it would be best to identify them sooner rather than later.
It was also revealed at yesterday meeting that the Part 8 planning permission is likely to be before the a full meeting of Clare County Council before the end of this year.
“I ask that the preparation of the Part 8 be an absolute priority. The only person who seem to be left out of this process is the general public and there are 400 students, elderly people walking to mass and people just trying to do business in Ennistymon,” said Cllr Richard Nagle (FF).
“We need a definite date for this Part 8 and when the development will take place. We have been waiting for a long time for this and we can’t be waiting much longer.”