| Down the drain |
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| Tuesday, 26 August 2008 15:38 | |
 The greater Ennis area has lost out on a half a billion euro in investment over the past 12 months as Clare County Council’s inability to accommodate new development begins to hit home.The latest planning application to fall victim to inadequate local infrastructure is the €50 million retail park proposed for a 48 acre site adjacent to the Ennis bypass. The application by Stephen Harris was refused due to the lack of proper sewage and flood relief systems and follows the local authority planners refusing planning permission to over 1,000 homes and a second retail park in the past year because of inadequate infrastructure. A new €75 million sewage treatment plant won’t be operational until 2012 and along with the loss to the local economy, the council has also lost out on €10 million in developer contributions over the past 12 months. One of the county’s best known businessmen, Brian McCarthy of Brian McCarthy Contractors expressed his concern at the situation. “It is very frustrating that at a time of decline in the construction sector, potential employment and development is stalled because of problems with the funding of this vital piece of infrastructure,” he said. Along with large scale planning applications coming to a halt, the council is facing “a crisis of unbelievable proportions” according to Cllr PJ Kelly (FF). Latest figures provided by the council show the local authorities received only €739,000 in contributions for the first half of the year –down 74 per cent on the €2.9 million received for the same period last year. The monies from developer contributions are required to finance new council capital programmes and Mayor of Clare, Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) said, “It is a dramatic drop and reflects the economic downturn in the county. It will present challenges to the council as it prepares its budget for 2009.” Ennis Town Engineer, Tom Tiernan said however that moves are being made to provide an interim measure in order to allow planning permission to proceed for large scale developments. |