This article is from page 2 of the 2008-10-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE level of personal information required from people applying for planning permission in Clare has been criticised as an “invasion of pri- vacy .
Residential policies contained in the Clare County Development Plan require applicants to prove that he/ she is local.
In that process, applicants are asked to submit bank statements, invoices or other forms of financial records in order, in part, to meet the qualifica- tions.
In one instance, according to one Quin councillor who has criticised the process, an applicant was asked
to provide 12 years of information.
“If policies require this type of detailed personal information then I do not consider them to be proper planning policies,’ said Cllr Sonny Scanlon (FG)
“You have planners looking for bank statements back 10 and 12 years. There is no one keeping bank statements that length of time today. I would like to know of there is any- one in Clare County Council that have bank statements kept this length of time,” he added.
Cllr Scanlon says there have been other instances where inconsistency has been applied to the planning ROS
“There are two planning appli-
cations 50 metres apart – one was granted by one planner and the other was refused by a different planner and both applications were facing forestry with the same surroundings. The planning applicant who was re- fused owned 15 acres of land for 20 years.”
He continued, “A son wanted to build a house on his father’s land which was over 100 acres. This in- cluded a particular piece of wooded land. The planner informed him to clear out of that particular area in the wood where the house would not be seen and he also carried out a per- colation test, which passed. He had spent €6,000 carrying out work and was refused planning permission by
the planner.”
Cllr Scanlon said he was concerned that sensitive financial information maybe contained in planning files. “Tt is an invasion of privacy to have bank statements in a planning appli- cation file. Anyone can come in and see them on file. Revenue keep files for six years only. The council keep files for seven years. Most people today use mobile phone on credit so they don’t have phone bills.”
He has called for the County Man- ager Alec Flemming to comment on this particular aspect of the County Development. Cllr Scanlon (FG) has also called for the requirement of “substantial personal information to be terminated”’.