This article is from page 20 of the 2012-06-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
CLARE’S most westerly village was celebrating on Friday with the announcement that their long awaited playground has got the green light from Clare Country Council.
The local authority granted permission for the nautical themed state of the art playground with eight car paring spaces including one disability car space.
The new playground will be situated between Keating’s and the Lighthouse Inn in the village.
Kilballyowen Development Ltd and the Playground Special Interest group are continuing to fundraise for the project and hope to be granted Leader funding in the coming weeks.
Ailish Connolly spokesperson for the playground group said everyone was delighted with the news.
“We were donated the site for this purpose back in March 2011 and its been a long road to get to this point,” she said.
The playground is likely to attract a lot of local and visiting children.
“Loop Head Lighthouse hope to attract more than 17,000 visitors this summer and this facility they hope will encourage families to stay longer in the area. Kilbaha, Cross and Carraigaholt have a good population of young children with the schools and playschools totalling 121 students this year.
“We have been so lucky with the huge support we have had from the parish of Kilballyowen. We had such huge support from our local councillors Patrick Keane, Gabriel Keating, and Oliver Garry, TD Pat Breen and Clare County Council,” she said.
“The playground is now subject to Leader funding but all going to plan the playground, we hope, will be opened late August this year,” added Ms Connolly.
To date the hard working fundraisers have raised € 20,525 and are hoping to raise the remaining € 10,975 during the next few weeks.