This article is from page 12 of the 2011-07-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
CLARE County Council has applied for emergency funding to tackle urgent health and safety problems in six so called “ghost estates” around the county.
This follow revelations last week that Clare County Council was one of a small number of local authorities who had failed to apply for funding under a € 5 million scheme set up to tackle the issue by the Department of the Environment.
A total of € 1.4 million has already been allocated under the scheme with Longford County Council having already received a grant of € 400,000 to tackle issues on a number of estates.
A spokesperson from Clare County Council confirmed for The Clare People yesterday that the local authority had made an application for funding on six separate development last week. There is as yet no indication when funding for these developments will be granted and Clare County Council has declined to name the estates which funding has been applied for.
The funding has been available for councils to draw down since April has already seen more then 10 local authorities receive in excess of € 100,000 from the department.
A total of 72 Clare developments were officially classified as “ghost estates” by the Department of the Environment last October. Clare County Council questioned these figures at the time, saying that many of the development classified as “ghost estates” were working well and nearing completion.