This article is from page 15 of the 2013-02-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
REMOVING levies from all developments in the county would give Clare an advantage over other counties and improve the county coffers.
In proposing to rid the county of such development contributions, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) believes this would encourage development within the county boundaries, and improve the rate takings of the local authority.
He told yesterday’s (Monday) meeting of the Kilrush area councillors that he had monitored seven applica- tions for planning for development before the council.
“If they went ahead we would have got planning levies back in terms of rates by now,” he said.
Such developments would also have lead to job creation and knock on benefits for the local economy.
The Lissycasey man requested that the county manager “draw up draft amendments to section 48 levies in order to exempt areas of West Clare, which are in population decline, from charges for industrial and commercial development”.
He later extended the proposal to include all of County Clare.
The Fianna Fáil councillor argued that such a move would give areas like Westbury a distinct advantage over Limerick City, would make areas of West Clare along the estuary more attractive to business than areas to the south in Kerry and such a move would also give Shannon Airport an advantage over Dublin.
Reviewing development contributions as an incentive mechanism was previously referenced in the Shannon Aviation Business Development Task Force Final Report.
“At the moment we have sterilisa- tion. No one is building in the county,” he said.
In his reply Senior Planner with Clare County Council Gordan Daly said that the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government issued Draft Guidelines for Planning Authorities o Development Contribution in June 2012.
“This guidance is designed to assist planning authorities to achieve, through their development contribution schemes, a balance between cost recovery for services provided and the need to support economic activity,” he said.
“The council considers that there are a number of issues that require to be addressed on a county wide basis including issues previously raised at county council meetings.
“It would be prudent to await the final guidelines to be issued by the department before the council would initiate any processes to commence a formal statutory review of the current scheme,” he added.
Cllr Kelly argued that these were merely guidelines and any decision in this respect would be made by the county manager and the council members.