This article is from page 22 of the 2008-10-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 22 JPG
CLARE County Council is being held to ransom by it’s own elected members who are refusing to ap- prove a review of the Development Contribution Scheme until a number of questions regarding planning are addressed by County Manager, Alec Jaa (senbbaree
With the local authority currently facing a hefty budget deficit, the council had hoped to review the Development Contribution Scheme to raise extra revenue. However, a
number a councillors, led by Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), have blocked this process until 17 specific queries are answered by the county manager.
“If there is a delay, don’t blame us, blame the manager. The shortfall has been brought about by the failure of this authority to grant planning permission. If a small shop was go- ing out of business do you think they would save themselves by doubling the price of bread? No, they would put themselves out of business alto- gether,’ said Cllr Kelly.
‘There is list of 17 problems on the
manager’s desk which should have been sorted out long before this. If the manager can get these sorted out we can deal with the review in the adjourned meeting.”
Green Party Cllr Brian Meaney, said the Development Contributions Scheme is how this council funds a great deal of it’s day-to-day activi- Woe
“We have a €10 million shortfall this year between what we are bring- ing in and what is going out. This is a necessary part of the funding for this local authority and this review needs
to take place. It is simply not meet- ing the need of this council funding at present,’ he said.
County Manager Alex Fleming, said he hoped to have all 17 queries dealt with by the next council meet- ing later this month.
“They have to do with interpreta- tion of the Development Plan and we have solved most of the issues,” he said.
“T have no problem with this stay- ing over until after the budget so we can see what is the situation at that point.”