This article is from page 22 of the 2007-09-18 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 to circu- late a questionnaire to every house in Ballyvaughan over the com- ing weeks, asking the local people for their opinions on how the town should be developed in the future.
That was one of the major decisions arising from a public meeting hosted by the local authority at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan last Veto
The meeting, which was chaired by
Risteard Ua Croinin, conservation officer for Clare County Council, was an introductory public meeting hosted in preparation for the creation of a Village Design Statement for Ballyvaughan.
“It was a very positive meeting. There was a great turnout and we heard a lot of relevant concerns from the Ballyvaughan people, mostly about the local infrastructure. Eve- rything that was said was very posi- tive,’ said Ua Croinin.
“One of the major issues raised was
about water and the quality of water in Ballyvaughan. They were prob- ably the most controversial areas. There were also worries raised about the capacity of the sewerage system in Ballyvaughan and the density of future developments.” Ballyvaughan, along with Carriga- holt in west Clare, has been selected by Clare County Council’s Planning Policy Unit as an ideal candidate for this initiative due to its size and loca- tion. The project will be undertaken by officials of the Planning Policy
Unit in line with a series of public consultation workshops and meet- ings with local interested individu- als and groups. The unit will also be seeking the input of local public representatives at these meetings and workshops.
“The opinions of the local people will have a huge impact on how this policy is formed. This is a plan that will be developed by the local people and treated by the council as a Local Area Plan,” continued Ua Croinin.
“We didn’t get to address all the is-
sues on the table so there will be an- other meeting in the coming weeks. It was decided to circulate a ques- tionnaire to all the local people and we decided exactly what questions to ask at the meeting. The question- naire should be circulated locally in the coming weeks.”
Clare County Council hopes to ad- dress a number of issues during the drafting of the Ballyvaughan Village Design Statement, including the pro- tection and conservation of impor- tant buildings.