This article is from page 10 of the 2012-10-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
THE number of planning applications in Clare has fallen by almost one third in a year.
According to Clare County Council, 577 valid planning applications were submitted so far this year.
The majority of these were for new homes or housing estates. A total of 207 such applications was made.
Domestic extensions and garages are also proving popular, with 115 applications.
Agricultural developments accounted for 34 applications, with 82 applications for retention also received. Nine applications received by the planning authority were for outline planning permissions.
The remaining 130 applications were made up of changes of use, extensions to schools, wind turbines, entrances, graveyard extensions, and change of design.
The fourth National Housing Construction Index complied and issued by Link2Plans maintains there is a continued drop in housing construction activity throughout the county.
The National Housing Construction Index measures every submitted Planning Application and Planning Commencement.
The team of researchers at www. link2plans.com have examined every housing construction planning application and planning commencement from January through to August 2012, in the production of the National Housing Construction Index.
The Index gives a direct comparison with the exact same period in 2011.
The Link2Plans research demonstrates that from January to August 2012, 231 planning applications were submitted in Clare. This compares to 341 in 2011 resulting in a drop of 32 per cent, ranking it the county with the third largest drop.
There was also an 18 per cent decrease in the number of Commencement Notices issued in Clare from 186 down to 152.
This volume examines the number of planning permission applications for residential projects from January to August, showing a significant variation regionally when looking at planning applications activity per head of population.
According to Managing Director of Link2Plans, Danny O’Shea, “Once again, the National Housing Construction Index has shown huge variations throughout the country. In the first eight months of the year, across the country, a total of 9,197 individual projects applied for planning permission which is down from 10,953 or a fall of 16 per cent compared with 2011. In terms of project commencements, nationally there was a 10 per cent fall from 4215 in 2011 to 3782 in 2012.”