This article is from page 4 of the 2006-11-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
ENNIS Town Council revealed yesterday that it was met with a demand of €1.7 million to settle an access dispute before the case went to the High Court this year.
Last week, The Clare People revealed that the Kennedy family of Francis Street, Ennis was to receive €300,000 plus legal costs arising from an access dispute that stopped the council proceeding with a €1 million land-sale adjacent to Glor.
The council is to pay the family €200,000, while the developers, Ray Staunton and Kieran Flanagan are to pay €100,000. Last year, the two secured planning permission for an apartment block on the site, but could not proceed as a result of the dispute.
Last week, James Kennedy said the council was made aware of a dispute relating to the site on the morning of the auction and criticised their failure to settle the dispute.
However, a statement from the council yesterday claimed they were forced into bringing High Court proceedings in 2004 because of the “unacceptable demands” made by the Kennedy family.
The council said numerous attempts were made to reach a resolution, culminating in their solicitors sending an open letter of offer to the Kennedys’ solicitors in June, 2005.
“No response was received to that letter which contained, as part of the settlement terms, the provision of access to the Kennedy house which was ultimately accepted by the Kennedys in settlement of the proceedings.
The council stated that the eventual settlement avoided a further 10 days in court and that costs associated with the case would be funded from the €1 million land sale.
Yesterday, Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) and Cllr Donal Bearra (Green Party) raised questions over the original land sale, while Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said that it was “very serious” that there won’t be much left over from the €1 million land sale.
Town Manager, Tom Coughlan said: “The comments attributed to the three councillors seem to respond to an inaccurate and slanted article which appeared in last week’s Clare People.
“The council solicitor expressed concern to the newspaper about the article’s content.”
When contacted last night, James Kennedy said that he was declining to comment for the moment.