This article is from page 38 of the 2009-02-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 38 JPG
CLARE County Council has been told that the adoption of the Ennis and Environs Development Plan may have jeopardised the level of future “infrastructural investment” in the county.
The Department of the Environ- ment has also stated that in its cur- rent form, the plan may fail to meet certain statutory obligations and could be open to legal challenge by the European Commission.
The warning is contained in a let- ter written by Eddie Kiernan, private secretary to the Minister for the En- vironment John Gormley to Berna- dette Kinsella, Director of Services at Clare County Council.
Members of Clare County Council passed the Ennis and Environs De- velopment Plan last December.
In doing so, they ignored Minister Gormley’s request to de-zone large tracts of land and to tighten controls on one-off housing.
In the letter Mr Kiernan said that the minister acknowledged the con- cerns of councillors over the “financ- ing of water services infrastructure” for the Ennis area.
However, Mr Kiernan said _ that land zoned in the plan catered for a population jump of “30,000 to over 100,000 although the expected pop- ulation growth over the period of the plan is only of the order of 6,500”.
He continued, “In such circum- stances and without any clear phas- ing of lands for development, the plan provides for an ad-hoc and de- velopment led approach to planning, making the efficient and orderly pro- vision of physical and social infra- structure more difficult to achieve.”
Mr Kiernan said, “In the current climate, departments and agencies must consider how they should pri- oritise their resources to deliver best value for money and provide a sound basis for improving economic per- formance and competitiveness.”
“However, without a development plan that is coherent and consistent with regional and national policies and priorities and indeed with strong forecasts set down in the County De- velopment Plan and Housing Strat- egy, the Ennis and Environs Plan as adopted fails to provide the neces- sary framework underpinning the delivery of value for money for in- frastructural investment. It is likely that infrastructural investment deci- sions at central government level will take account of that in allocation of scarce resources.’
Mr Kiernan said the European
Commission may also challenge the ene
‘The plan as adopted has also sig- nificant issues relating to appropri- ate assessment under the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and Strategic Environmental Assessment and the potential impacts of zoning deci- sions on the designated sites around the environs area, including the zon- ing of 25ha of land from open coun- tryside to industrial at Beechpark, which was recommended against under the Appropriate Assessment.
“Given the serious implications for designated areas and possible legal challenge by the European Com- mission, the department will have to consider whether the plan has met it’s statutory obligations and has been made in accordance with EU directive requirements,” said Mr Ki- ere