News Update 11-11-97

Chief Planner of Clare County Council, Mr. Ciarn Lynch, recommends that Planning Permission for the Mullaghmore Development be Granted

The Chief Planner for Co. Clare, Mr. Ciarn Lynch, recommended to the elected Members of Clare County Council that planning permission for the Mullaghmore Centre be granted with several extraordinary conditions.

  1. That full sewage treatment and disposal of effluent take place on site.

  2. That the existing overflow car par be completed and retained. This would double the amount of car parking space.

  3. That no work take place at the Mullaghmore site unless an integrated system of visitor facilities at Ballyvaughan, Kilfenora and Corofin be provided. An integrated visitor management system must be in place, planning permission must have been granted for the village facilities and money allocated for their provision before any work begins at Mullaghmore.

  4. The developer must provide £450,000 toward the cost of "road improvements" between Kilnaboy and Mullaghmore.

  5. "Remote controlled" signage capable of indicating that the National Park is closed and/or the car park is full shall be provided at the main road junction at Kilnaboy.

There are two important points to note in Mr Lynchs' recommendations.

  1. If the permission was granted with the attached conditions it would be tantamount to the granting of planning permission for the original proposal (that first submitted in January of 1994) but with a smaller building. Full car and bus parks would be put in place and sewage treatment and disposal of effluent would take place on site.

  2. There is now a concerted attempt to link the Mullaghmore centre to the development of village based visitor facilities. BAG were the first to recommend the development of village based visitor facilities and we continue to support this approach. After five years and the publication of numerous reports and studies the OPW have seem to have accepted this approach.

Both the County Council and the OPW continue to insist that a centre at Mullaghmore is required. Their arguments for this are very weak, as anyone who has read the various studies published on the matter can testify. They still are unable to convince the Heritage Council (the statutory body set up to advise the Minister on matters of policy) or any of the national and international conservation organisations of the need for a centre at Mullaghmore.

An appalling consequence of the linking together of the village based centres and the Mullaghmore centre is that no progress can be made in the villages until the Mullaghmore issue is resolved.

Comments to burrenag@iol.ie

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