This article is from page 10 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 10 JPG
THE sustained protest by councillors against Clare County Council’s strict planning rules is having minimal 1m- pact on the council’s refusal rate for one-off homes.
New council figures show that in- dividuals were more likely to be suc- cessful in securing planning permis- sion in 2003 than last year despite continuing councillor complaints over the enforcement of planning MUN he
Planning continues to dominate the local authority’s monthly meetings, however, the council’s Director for Planning, Bernadette Kinsella, has revealed that the refusal rate for one off homes last year was 25 per cent compared to a 19 per cent refusal rate in 2003.
In response to a motion tabled by Cllr PJ Kelly CFF), Ms Kinsella re- vealed that in 200,6 204 out of 828 applications for one-off homes were Kod AUESLorOR
Along with the 25 per cent refused, a further 198 or 23 per cent were withdrawn giving an overall failure rate of 48 per cent.
In relation to statistics for one-off homes for 2003, Ms Kinsella said that of 917 applications for one-off homes, 176 or 19 per cent were re- fused. The statistics show that a
further 191 or 20 per cent were re- fused giving an overall total of 39 per cent.
Meanwhile the EU Commission could remove the non-local ban from the Clare County Development Plan.
The commission is expected to an- nounce within the month that many of the restrictions in Irish county CLAVe) Le) eyeatorelam ole Delcme-Dacms DUleseecU MUbOLe(on European law.
It finds that the provisions con- cerned are discriminatory, dispro- portionate and constitute restrictions on the free movement of capital and the freedom of establishment guar- anteed by the European treaties.
Leader of the Fianna Fail group at the council, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) said: “I have highlighted the illegality of these rules a number of times at the council.”
Jim Connolly of the Irish Rural Dwellers Association said that the EU Commission’s move to scrap the “non-local” rule would “undoubted- ly result in a wave of compensation claims from those who have been denied their natural right to build a house”.
He said: “This will put into the halfpenny place any form of com- pensation claims against illegal gov- ernment Acts up until now because of the extent of the value of the assets that the people have been denied.