This article is from page 11 of the 2006-06-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
CLARE County Council is to press ahead with reducing levy charges on promoters of golf courses, driving ranges and small quarries.
At the Council’s Special Policy Committee (SPCC) in Ennis last week, Clare’s Mayor, Cllr Patrick Keane said that the anomalies in the council’s current scheme needed to be addressed.
“There are owners of small quarries and people who want to develop facilities such as driving ranges that are facing unfair financial penalties under the current Developer Contribution Scheme”.
The move by the SPC to signal an overhaul to parts of the Developer Contribution comes after a decision by two Kilkee businessmen to postpone a driving range in Kilkee.
The council required that the applicants pay €35,000 in development contributions to the local authority.
Initially, the council ordered Kevin Haugh and M Talty to pay €103,000. The council admitted that the figure was wrongly calculated and it was reduced to €83,000.
The council then further reduced the contribution to €35,000 after re-calculating the contribution to be given.
In a letter to the council last year, Mr Haugh wrote that €35,000 was still out of the driving range’s financial reach. We were thinking of contributions between €5,000 and €10,000. We have a young family who has moved home from the US and we are hoping Clare County Council can further reduce the contribution sum so that we can remain there in Kilkee and be part of the community”.
However, the council stated that it could not see how a further response could be justified.