This article is from page 9 of the 2007-08-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
THE company constructing the Ennis bypass has been accused of a breach of contract over placing a protected butterfly onto private land outside the bypass zone without the permis- sion of Clare County Council.
The placing of the Marsh Fritil- lary on lands formerly owned by JJ McCabe has sparked a row between consultants acting for Clare County Council on the bypass and GAMA Construction, where GAMA is deny- ing any breach of contract.
The placing or translocation of the rare butterfly has presented planning headaches to purchaser of the JJ Mc- Cabe lands, Stephen Harris in his bid to construct a €50 million retail park at the site.
Clare County Council has told Mr Harris that there remains serious concerns in relation to the presence of the butterfly on his lands.
Now, in correspondence released through the Freedom of Information Act, Bryan Hamilton of consulting firm Jacobs employed by the council wrote to GAMA in March to state, “We are extremely disappointed to read in this report that Gama Stra- bag Construction Ltd (GSCL) has worked outside the lands made avail- able for the works in relation to the original location of the species and the translocation area.”
In response, Project Manager with GAMA, John Cunningham said on March 29, “We note that in your
letter of February 14, you state that ‘there is no record that this location is outside the lands made available by the employer’.
“We consider that this comment is disingenuous as the reference clearly is to a location that was outside the alignment. For avoidance of any confusion, I note that I personally at- tended both meetings referred to.
“We made it clear on July 23, 2004, that we intended to move the marsh fritillary larvae and associated food plant outside the lands made availa- ble. You raised no concerns or sought
any clarification at the time.
“We further confirmed, as minuted on September 24, that we had relo- cated the plants and larvae and iden- tified the location to an adjacent field — JJ McCabe’s land.”
In relation to the claim of breach of contract, Mr Cunningham said, “We again state that we fulfilled our con- tractual obligations with regard to environmental mitigation in respect OM slow oer-vans meu lselt-)mvam