This article is from page 11 of the 2006-05-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
THE Whelan Group has spent almost €7 million on a contentious explosives factory that has yet to be built, according to its accounts.
Seven years have now passed since the group, through a subsidiary, Shannon Explosives, made an unsuccessful planning application for the plant at Cahercon, Kildysart.
An Bord Pleanala rejected the proposal in 2003.
The company is now five months behind schedule in re-lodging a revised planning application.
The accounts state that plans for the contentious factory were due to have been relodged with Clare County Council last December.
The accounts also show that €2.8 million was spent on licensing and planning for the explosives plant in 2003.
This was in addition to the €4 million the company admitted to spending on the plan, at an An Bord Pleanala oral hearing in October 2002.
This included the purchase of a nearby convent.
In relation to the spend of €2.8 million, the company’s accounts state, “The recoverability of this expenditure is subject to obtaining planning permission for the construction of an industrial explosives plant at Kildysart, Co. Clare.”
The €6.8 million total doesn’t include the costs of preparing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the new application that is shortly to be lodged.
An Bord Pleanala expressed no opposition to the project in principle, but refused planning on the grounds that the extent of proposed filling on the site had not been adequately dealt within the company’s EIS.
The Bord suggested that this would be best dealt with by a new application for planning to the council.
In the accounts, the group expresses confidence that the new application will be successful.
“The company’s planning and legal advisors are of the opinion that planning permission will be forthcoming for a revised planning application accompanied by a revised EIS statement adequately dealing with the filling of the site.”
A spokesman for the Kildysart Explosives Factory Opposition Group (KEFOG) told The Clare People that if any new application was lodged, they would oppose it, saying, “We are ready and willing for battle.”
Earlier this year, Paddy Whelan, Managing Director of the group, said planning for the factory would “not be a major issue.
“I am confident it will get through. The proper planning procedure will have to be gone through, that is it.
“We have done it before and we will do it again. There was a lot of scaremongering over the previous proposal.”