The O.P.W. Respond to the County Council's Request for Further Information

On 25 February 1997 the Office of Public Works responded to the request of the Clare County Council for further information. The following is the text of that response:

25 February 1997

Dear Sir

I refer to your letter of 20 December, 1996, in which you requested further information pursuant to the planning application in respect of the proposed visitor facility at Gortlecka. In order to address the Council's concerns the following information has been compiled and is listed according to the queries raised in your letter.

1. The sewage will be treated on site (primary and secondary) and then the treated effluent will be removed from the site. This is being done to alleviate the concern of those who have objected to the treated effluent being discharged on site and into the existing aquifers although the original treatment plant would have been more than adequate to protect the existing ground waters. As there will not be any discharge of treated effluent at the site the technologically sophisticated white water process providing highly purified water is no longer necessary.
2. See Clare County Council letter of 20th February 1997 attached.
3. The effluent will be treated before it is transported off site. The treated effluent will be odourless and will not be a health hazard as defined by E.U. Legislation - (Water Pollution) Regulation 1992 - (24/20). The treated effluent will be 10/10 at most and more likely to be 2/5.
4. The treated effluent will be disposed of by a private contractor and the location for the disposal can be notified to the Local Authority. As this is in the future it is not possible to designate a location at this time.
5. The provision of an irrigation area is a misprint in Document 1, and will not be installed as the treated effluent is being discharged off site.
6. The proposal is to discharge of the sludge at the Ennis Treatment Plant as agreed in the Trade Effluent Discharge Licence issued by Clare County Council and An Bord Pleanala.
1. With regard to the provision of the network of facilities in the three towns of Kilfenora, Corofin and Ballyvaughan referred to in your letter, The Heritage Service (which encompasses the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the National Monuments and Historic Properties Service) of the Department of Arts, Culture end the Gaeltacht will be involved to varying degrees in said provision. As you are aware the NPWS are responsible for the management of the Burren National Park. The exact involvement in each town is set out below.
  Corofin
  It is proposed to provide a facility in the village of Corofin which will provide an information centre for the national park comprising:
  - an audiovisual show area
  - graphic interpretative display
  - nature study room for school groups
  - additional and improved displays for Clare Heritage Centre
  - National Park headquaters
  The approximate size envisaged for this facility is 900-1,000 square metres.
  Kilfenora
  Comhar Cumainn Na Boirne (CCnaB) already interpret the ecology of the Burren in their Burren Centre in the village. The Heritage Service proposes to obtain transfer of Kilfenora Cathedral and has entered into discussions with the Select Vestry and the Representative Church Body (RCB) of the Church of Ireland to this end. It is proposed, subject to agreement by the RCB, to use the Cathedral to interpret and display the monastic and architectural heritage of Kilfenora, in particular the High Crosses. The Burren Centre (CCnaB) will be asked to present the monuments and provide a guide service for visitors with access through the Burren Centre. Budgetary allocations have been earmarked for this purpose.
  The Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht is involved in discussions with CCnaB as to how best it could provide assistance for the re-inforcement of the permanent exhibition "Man and the Burren".
  If agreement can be reached on these matters the Heritage Service of the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht will support a funding application for CCnaB to strengthen and update their presentation and interpretation of the Burren.
  Ballyvaughan
  Interpretation of the Burren, general or specific aspects of it, already takes place at three privately owned Visitor facilities at Ballyvaughan. The Heritage Service has asked the owners of these facilities if they will accommodate interpretative materials (panels and publications) at their sites to link with similar material that will be provided at Corofin and Kilfenora as well.
2. Management of the proposed centre at Corofin which will interpret the Burren National Park and the subject facility will be closely linked. Numbers arriving at Gortlecka will be monitored both there and by the Corofin centre (see below) to ensure that numbers remain within design levels. Visitors to the Corofin centre who wish to experience the National Park at first hand will be directed to the visitor entry point proposed at Gortlecka. the centre at Corofin will have information showing the location of the other centres at Kilfenora and Ballyvaughan and the subject matter dealt with there. Similarly, these centres will display the locations and details of the others in the network. It is proposed that there would be co-operation and information exchange between the centres including annual review meetings but day to day management will remain a matter for those groups or individuals responsible for running the centres.
3. The facility at Gortlecka, the subject of this application, will be provided if planning permission is granted. Arrangements are already in train to reach agreement on the facilities at the other locations. If planning permission for the Gortlecka facility is not achieved then a reassessment of the nature and scale and the involvement of the Heritage Service at the other locations will be necessary. If permission is obtained for the Gortlecka facility then planning applications will be submitted for them at other locations within six months of a successful planning application for the Gortlecka site. The time scale for works to be undertaken by voluntary groups or private individuals will be dependent on, inter alia, planning permission.
  It is intended that the Department will fund the developments at Gortlecka, Corofin and Ballyvaughan. In regard to Kilfenora the monastic/monument presentation will be funded, in its entirety, by the Department which will also substantially fund the re-inforcement of the existing display "Man and the Burren".
4. The Heritage Service will directly manage the Gortlecka facility and fund construction of the Corofin facility and will occupy part of it as National Park offices. Day to day management will be contracted to a local group with an advisory committee in which the Heritage Service and other local bodies will be represented.
  The Heritage Service will enter into a legal agreement with CCnaB on the presentation and interpretation of the Kilfenora monuments.
  The Heritage Service will be only peripherally involved with the Ballyvaughan facilities once agreement is reached with any of the existing centres there to display the Burren interpretation material.
1. It is presumed that the proposals referred to are those at 6.14 et seq. in the Draft Burren Strategy. This envisages the dispersal of visitors along key routes to key locations in the Burren. It is to a large extent a restating of the draft Burren Tourism Strategy which Clare County Council and its planning department were involved in the commissioning and preparation of.
  The role of the Heritage Service in the strategy will be to:-
  1. Provide or assist in the provision of interpretation and information on the natural heritage of the Burren at Corofin, Kilfenora and Ballyvaughan: and
  2. to publish a new strategy document on the national monuments and archeological sites of the Burren. This document will recommend and set out a cohesive approach to access to and protection of the monuments and will be launched by the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht as a discussion document with the intention of inviting public comment.
2. Subject to planning permission, the Heritage Service will - in the event that discouragement methods outlined in the report not being effective which is considered very unlikely - provide:-
  1. advance signage at Kilnaboy Cross indicating to visitors that the Gortlecka Facility is full and is closed to the public: and
  2. a link to the Corofin Centre through an electronic visitor management system which will give the total number of vehicles in the Gortlecka car park at any one time. The changeable signage at Kilnaboy will then redirect visitors to the Corofin or Kilfenora centres. The car park will have a "FULL" sandwich board type sign placed at the entrance which will also give options on other locations to visitors.
1. The car parking, as proposed in the application, will be sufficient to cater for the projected number going to the site. As there is no Exhibition, Audio Visual Theatre or Restaurant, the Entry Point, per se, will not be an attraction. The sole purpose is to provide assembly and toilet facilities for walkers.
2. See item 3(b)
1. Coach and tour companies will be informed that the Gortlecka facility cannot accommodate full size touring coaches - but minibuses will be accepted. Staff at the site will be geared to handling groups of up to 30 visitors, therefore, larger groups will be actively discouraged in our literature and promotional material. Large groups will be directed in the first instance to the Corofin centre.
2. In the light of our experience elsewhere we do not expect this situation to arise once bus operators have been informed as set out above. If any tour buses do arrive at peak periods and times, they will be allowed to turn and be redirected to Corofin of Kilfenora. At other times they will be allowed to park in the car park to minimise inconvenience to customers.
The need for improving the access road to Gortlecka at several locations is recognised. A contribution of some Ł400,000 was made to Clare County Council for these improvements in December 1990.
Natural Heritage Area (NHA's) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC's) are proposed for designation by the by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the Department for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in accordance with proposed wildlife legislation including the proposed Regulations under Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21/5/92 (Habitats Directive) the enactment of which the said Department is responsible for. The NPWS has, therefore, proposed certain areas as NHA's and will be shortly be proposing areas as SAC's. The NPWS will be managing then proposed facility and they are satisfied that the proposed development including associated nature trails will not have any significant adverse impact on the areas proposed for designation as NHA's or SAC's. Maps showing the proposed NHA's in the Greater Burren area are attached. The proposed development, the associated nature trails and all areas of the National Park in the vicinity are within proposed NHA's, likely also to be designated as SAC's.
The Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht appointed a Steering Committee to oversee tle preparation of a draft management plan for the Burren National Park in the context of the Wider North Clare area. This Committee commissioned consultants, namely, Brady Shipman Martin, to prepare such a plan and met with them on numerous occasions to oversee and offer assistance on this work. The plan was published and released as part of a public consultation exercise which resulted in a number of submissions being received, and thereafter, considered.
The plan sought to identify the forms of development which would not conflict with nature conservation in the wider North Clare area and where the National Park is concerned to provide public access to the Park where his is compatible with that conservation. The Plan makes various recommendations in this regard, one of which is the provision of visitor facilities at Gortlecka, the subject of this application. Another recommendation is the provision of a network of facilities at Kilfenora, Corofin and Ballyvaughan.
As the development at Gortlecka is set within the context of the overall strategy outlined in the Draft Plan the Minister has determined that on receipt of Planning Permission for the Entry Point he will confirm the strategy outlined in the Plan.
If Planning Permission is refused, however, he will ask the Steering Committee to propose amendments to this Plan before its adoption.
This Plan, together with "Tourism in the Burren - A Strategic Plan", the preparation of which Clare County Council was involved with, therefore formed the basis of the Minister's Policy in relation to the Burren National Park (in the context of the wider North Clare area) and provides the philosophicel, organisational and strategic context for the subject application. Copies of the documents are attached.
The socio-economic studies carried out in the 1992 and 1994, EIS's, relate to previous scheme. The revised Visitors' Entry point is a new proposal without negative socio-economic impacts and the earlier conclusions are no longer relevant.

Yours Faithfully

June Thompson
Project Management Division

The following is the text of letter from Clare County Council to the Office of Public Works of 20 February 1997:

A Chara,

I refer to your enquiry regarding the proposed method of disposal of effluent from the above development and I wish to advise you that the Council would not be willing to permit the effluent to be disposed of in any of the treatment plants under its control. It does not consider it appropriate to provide this facility, particularly having regard to the fact that an effluent treatment system has been provided on site and a discharge licence granted by the Council and by An Bord Pleanala on appeal.

Mise le meas

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