This article is from page 11 of the 2006-02-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
THE failure by the Department of the Environment to provide the infrastructure to allow for the growth of Clare’s towns and villages is the biggest disappointment of outgoing Clare senior executive planner, Graham Webb’s time in Clare.
During his five years in Clare, Mr Webb was the architect of Clare’s various County Development Plans that envisaged the Department providing the infrastructure for Clare’s towns and villages to prosper.
Speaking in a personal capacity, Mr Webb said, “All the settlements are zoned which means we should be able to start making the arguments to have the infrastructure put in place to support growth in those settlements.
“Unfortunately, the council has been let down by the Department and the funding hasn’t come forward. That is the biggest disappointment. The failure of the Department to recognise that Clare has a particular problem due to its rural location and that it can’t meet the same numbers and figures per capita in relation to costing that you get on the outskirts of Dublin.
“The whole policy structure from central Government is to build up settlements, to show that you have a critical mass of people in those settlements and we will give you the infrastructure to support that.
“You are not going to get people to move into settlements where there is no basic infrastructure and try as we may as planners to encourage people to do that, if they have got the money and the wherewithal to live outside those settlements, they will do.
“That is the rule of thumb they tend to use, so we are always on a back-foot trying to put forward the case.
“If you can’t get the population back up, you can’t get the funding to put the infrastructure in, so you will have shops and schools closing down, because you don’t have the population to support those services.”
Mr Webb was also involved in the development of a tourism initiative, Clare Live the Life. He believes it has “huge potential and it could lead to re-branding of tourism in Clare, because at present, tourism is a bit lost in Clare. It is a bit unclear who and how it is going to be promoted”.
Mr Webb said he was “hugely sorry to be leaving Clare at all. I don’t tend to stay long in a job because I find that you peak and you’re delivery falls away.”