Month: September 2007

ENNIS Town Council may formulate its own housing strategy after refus- ing to adopt a document prepared by Clare County Council.

The draft policy, Housing For Sus- tainable Communities, was presented to members at Monday’s meeting of Ennis Town Council. Using data from the latest census, it sets out projected housing requirements for Ennis from 2007-11. The document also incorpo- rates new legislative and national pol- icles in respect of housing standards

and delivery requirements.

Councillors are angry, though, at the lack of input Ennis Town Council has had 1n the process.

Addressing John Bradley, Senior Executive Planner with Clare Coun- cil, Mayor of Ennis Tommy Brennan said, “I don’t believe anyone from this council has had any involvement in this plan. Do you call this consul- tation? This is not consultation. In- stead we get a document.”

Members backed a proposal to ex- plore the possibility of drafting its own housing strategy.

Town Manager, Tom Coughlan said the prepared housing strategy would form part of the Ennis and Environs Development Plan and that another document could result in three sepa- rate housing policies for Ennis.

The strategy predicted, that in a high growth scenario, Ennis would require 2,086 extra houses by 2011. It also showed that 13 per cent of houses in the Ennis and environs area were vacant in 2006.

The strategy predicted that Ennis could need an extra 290 social houses and 260 affordable houses by 2011.

Countywide figures for local au- thority land requirements to meet so- cial and affordable housing demands revealed a shortfall of 11 hectares.

But Cllr Brennan cast doubt over the figures by saying Ennis lacks the infrastructural requirements to meet new housing developments.

“The figures don’t stack up. I have seen a planning document that says we are almost at full capacity sew- age. How are we going to build these houses, with buckets?”

The town engineer admitted the wastewater scheme in the Ennis and

environs area was approaching ca- pacity. ““We are monitoring the situa- tion. In the intervening period, while we wait for a permanent treatment plant at Clareabbey, there is scope to improve or even expanding existing facilities and install a temporary fa- cility if the need required.”

Fine Gael councillor, Johnny Flynn said, “This council has been put through the hoops by the depart- ment…It is a dangerous situation. En- nis is a recognised hub town, but it has not received quick approval for major infrastructural projects.”

SINN FEIN national chairwoman, Mary Lou McDonald has refuted the allegation that the Aer Lingus deci- sion to relocate its Shannon-Heath- row slots to Belfast was a form of “peace dividend” negotiated between both Governments and the parties. North Kerry deputy Martin Ferris, Clare representative Pat Talty and Maurice Quinlivan from Limerick, accompanied the MEP to Shannon to meet the various concerns opposing

the moving of the slots.

At the airport they met with mem- bers of the Shannon Action Group to offer Sinn Feéin’s full support to help overturn the Aer Lingus decision.

Ms McDonald added that Sinn Féin had agreed to write to the leaders of all the opposition parties in a bid to form a political alliance to have the Aer Lingus decision reversed.

“As far as Sinn Féin is concerned, the origins of the present difficulties can be traced back to the privatisa- tion of Aer Lingus. What I want to

make very clear is that we are aware of speculation locally that the move- ment of these slots was some form of ‘peace dividend’. As someone who has been involved in detailed nego- tiations for two years or more, I can categorically say that at no stage was any such thing discussed as part of a peace package.

‘Sinn Fein would never have agreed to pitching the Belfast region against the mid-west. This isn’t a zero-sum game. It isn’t about pitching Shannon against Belfast,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of Clare Sinn Fein, Cathy McCafferty said that some of the ideas being floated as alternatives to Aer Lingus retaining its Heathrow slots for Shannon are nothing more than “smokescreens ZWOOMRceCd NUM TITSa ee

“T don’t see anything realistic com- ing from proposals that Belfast or Charles De Gaulle could provide alternative hubs for Shannon. As re- gards the news of BMI coming in, there’s nothing concrete about that either.

“In any case these alternatives do not address the core issue of whether Aer Lingus workers at Shannon, es- pecially those employed on ground support roles, will have a future.”

Martin Ferris commended the Aer Lingus workers on their campaign to save the Heathrow slots for Shannon and promised the support of his par- ty’s Dail deputies.

Deputy Ferris said Sinn Féin had campaigned during the recent elec- tion for the re-nationalisation of Aer Bars teat ine

THE ATLANTIC Connectivity Alli- ance 1S preparing to make the case to Transport Minister, Noel Dempsey for retaining or replacing the Shan- non/Heathrow slots at a meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

The alliance — which represents business, tourism, union and com- munity interests — was invited by

the minister to meet with him.

“We welcome this face-to-face meeting with the minister and will be taking this opportunity to leave him in no doubt as to the seriousness of the impact that this decision will have on the region, of our dismay over Government inaction on this is- sue and its apparent inability to un- derstand the grave repercussions this will have for a huge portion of the country,’ alliance vice-chairman, Ken Sullivan said.

“Our priority remains the reversal of this incredulous decision by Aer Lingus to abandon a profitable route for a competitive market in Belfast and we are continuing to work across a number of strands to achieve this.”

The alliance will present the case which they have drawn up and doc- umented. Alliance members have vowed that the Aer Lingus decision to reject Ryanair’s request for an

EGM will not slow their campaign.

“The decision does not impact on the campaign being taken by the alli- ance to retain the Shannon-Heathrow slots and preserve them in perpetuity for Shannon. The alliance campaign will continue across a number of strands, including the meeting with the transport minister,’ Mr Sullivan SrHKOE

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Clare Pa- tricia McCarthy said that the Govern- ment must now take it upon itself to retain direct services between Shan- non Airport and London-Heathrow Mayor McCarthy added she was “bitterly disappointed” with the de- cision by the board of Aer Lingus to reject a request from Ryanair to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders.

Mayor McCarthy explained, “It is now evident that the Government must act and deliver on the guaran- tees given in its IPO document to have permanent and quality con- nectivity from Shannon to London Heathrow.

“The Government has, to date, failed to realise that this is not just a Shannon issue but has major im- plications for the entire country in terms of maintaining critical con- nectivity to one of the world’s busiest airports,” she added.

A DEVELOPER who secured plan- ning permission for a €45 million development in the south-east Clare village of Ardnacrusha is contesting the Clare County Council demand that he pay a special contribution of €1.5 million.

Last month, Joe McMahon secured planning permission for 181 homes in the village in spite of strong local Opposition.

Now, both Mr McMahon and local

residents have appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanala.

Along with other financial contri- butions, the council is demanding that he pay a special contribution of €1.5 million.

Mr McMahon’s consultants state that the imposition of the special development “lacks transparency, is onerous and inappropriate”’.

In their appeal, consultants for Ardacrusha residents state, “Such a high density development will re- sult in an unsustainable development

pattern, with families commuting to Limerick city and other towns to uti- lise necessary public services such as primary schools, recreational facili- ties and shops.

“It is contended that these restraints render any intensive developments in Ardnacrusha, such as the nature of that currently proposed, premature until such time as the required infra- structure has been put in place.

“The density of the proposed de- velopment has been maintained at 21 dwellings per hectare. This re-

mains contrary to the provisions of the County Development Plan which identifies the Parteen villages includ- ing Ardnacrusha as being suitable for a lower residential density.

“The proposed density is consid- ered more suitable to a suburban lo- cation and if permitted would cause significant adverse impact to the es- tablished rural character of the area.

“Taking into account the lack of infrastructure and services in the area, a development of the scale and nature as currently proposed is con-

sidered premature.

‘The proposed development by vir- tue of its density, layout, design and style is completely at odds with the established low density rural charac- ter of Ardnacrusha and would there- fore result in a significant negative impact on the residential amenity of the area. The proposed development would have an acceptable negative impact on traffic and would endanger public safety in the area.”

A decision is due on the appeal later this year.

DAIL deputies and ministers in Clare are following the party line and re- fusing to be drawn on how they will vote in a Dail confrontation on the S)eTNev ee MOM ISIE

The Labour Party has announced that it is to table a Dail motion call- ing on the Government to join forces with other shareholders to reverse the Aer Lingus decision to move the Shannon-Heathrow slots.

The TDs’ responses to news of the

Labour motion came as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern insisted that the Gov- ernment would do nothing to under- mine Aer Lingus moving its slots from Shannon. Mr Ahern said the fo- cus was now on getting another car- rier and denied there was a Cabinet split on the issue. He said the Gov- ernment had no prior warning of the Aer Lingus move.

Mr Ahern’s remarks followed on from Transport Minister Noel Dempsey’s dismissal of the Ryanair proposal to call an EGM as “‘a side-

show.”

Asked yesterday how he intended to vote on the Labour motion, Dep- uty Timmy Dooley (FF) said, “I haven’t seen the Labour motion yet and I haven’t seen the Government amendment. Until I see that, I cannot comment.”

Junior Enterprise Minister Tony Killeen also said he had not seen the motion or the proposed amendment.

Describing Labour’s move as “po- litical opportunism”, the minister said that the motion would have no

impact.

‘Private members’ motions have no effect unless they are part of a cam- paign to move things on,” he said.

Asked if an EGM should be called, the Corofin TD said, ““There is no point in having an EGM if there is no positive outcome for Shannon.”

The Minister for Defence, Willie O’Dea, was clear about what line of action he would take.

‘“There’s no point in voting in favour of something that will not change the situation,” he said.