A BUSINESSMAN yesterday revealed that he and his business partners are paying €20,000 in bank interest each month on a project that a county council has rendered no longer viable.
Last Thursday, Clare County Council gave the go-ahead for a €60 million retail park at Smithstown, Shannon. But it refused planning permission for the neighbourhood component of the application with the result that no aspect of the retail park will commence.
The application was made by Greenband Investments and Seán Halpin. Mr Halpin criticised the council, saying: “I have never encountered the kind of stone-walling, trip-wires, impediments that was put in the way of this development here.”
Mr Halpin said that the omission of the neighbourhood centre component of the plan no longer makes the retail park viable.
Mr Halpin confirmed that he and his business partners bought the 17½ acre site, zoned commercial, for €8 million in 2005 and have since paid €2 million in interest.
He said the interest is now costing on average €20,000 each month and that this was a lot of money for himself and his partners.