This article is from page 13 of the 2007-11-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
THE POPULATION of Ennis is ex- pected to shoot up to 35,000 by the year 2020, members of Clare County Council were told yesterday.
The members were being given a briefing on the progress of plans for Ennis as designated to be a hub town under the National Spatial Strategy.
Town Clerk, Eddie Power brought the members up to date with the is- sues involved at their adjourned monthly meeting yesterday, which was held in Scariff Community College to mark the opening of the nearby new Scariff Area Offices of the council.
Power told the elected members that it is “critical to ensure that En- nis benefits to the maximum extent” from the designation.
The purpose of hub towns, he told the meeting, is to have a supporting role for designated gateways — in this case, Limerick and Shannon.
Among the projects that have gone ahead and which are relevant to the town’s status as a hub are the im- minent start on the town’s new wa- ter treatment plant, the flood relief scheme, which is at tender stage, the
construction of the Ennis bypass and the planned new Northern Relief Road and the next section of the Inner Relief Road which will run from the Station Road to the Limerick Road.
Under the heading of hub towns of- fering a better lifestyle to residents, an extension to the Lees Road sports facility is planned in the form of a synthetic running track, while an extention to Glor is also in the off- ing and a new library is now at the design stage.
Park-and-ride facilities are also planned for Clarecastle and an ap-
plication for a bus service for Ennis has been lodged with Bus Eireann, Power said.
Cllr Michael Kelly said there had been a number of meetings concern- ing a commuter stop for Crusheen on the new Ennis to Athery road.
“This is a fast expanding town and it in extremely important we get this stop,’ he said.
Cllr Martin Lafferty described the designation of hubs as “the death- knell of development in rural areas. How is the population going to ex- pand? We are pushing people into built up areas.”
Cllr PJ Kelly said that he did not believe that a special advantage, such as hub status, can be given to one area “without leaving some other area at a disadvantage”. He referred to a book,