This article is from page 6 of the 2007-06-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
A CLARE County Council policy that results in Ennis losing out on 150 jobs and a €50 million investment appears, at first glance, bizarre.
A little known document, the Coun- ty Clare Retail Strategy 2003-11, has concluded that there is only capacity for one retail park on the southern fringes of Ennis.
This has now been endorsed by a consultant’s report commissioned by the council which has led to plan- ning permission being refused to Ennis businessmen Sean Lyne and Noel Connellan for a retail park on
the Quin Road and confers a mas- sive advantage on Galway investor Stephen Harris to develop a 48 acre land bank at Skehanagh adjoining the Ennis bypass.
The stakes are massive. Harris and his backers spent €18.5 million pur- chasing their land from local man JJ McCabe and while it is not known how much Lyne-Connellan spent on the Quin Road proposal, the overall cost would be be substantial.
The two local businessmen lodged their plans before Harris last summer and believed they were ahead in the race to secure planning.
The sparring continued with Har-
ris lodging a submission against the Lyne-Connellan proposal and the Clare developers responding by ex- pressing their own reservations over the Harris plan.
It is not known if either party were aware that the council commissioned consultants to adjudicate on the sus- tainability of either proposal.
Either way the outcome highlights the council’s contradictory policy moves on job creation in Ennis against a background of the town’s industrial base contracting year on year.
Why, for instance, did councillors Zone so much land for commercial
development on the fringes of the town in the Ennis and Environs De- velopment Plan 2003 when a separate council document, the Clare Retail Strategy, concluded there was room for only retail park south of Ennis?
Should the market be allowed de- cide how many retail parks can be accommodated without a document such as the retail strategy there to limit development? Or is the council correct in adhering to a retail strat- egy in order to preserve businesses 1n the core town area?
However, it is not plain sailing for the Harris proposal either. If the same criteria which rejected the
Lyne-Connellan proposal were to apply, the council would also rule that the Harris plan was premature pending the completion of the flood risk study and the absence of an inte- erated sewerage design scheme.
The Galway developer has also to address the issue of the protected Marsh Fritillary butterfly on the site.
Harris must lodge his response to council concerns — including the fate of the Marsh Fritillary — by the middle of next month otherwise new plans will have to be lodged.
It is very much “advantage Har- ris’ but there are bound to be further twists and turns in this scramble yet.