OPW says zoned areas around Ennis prone to floods

THE OFFICE of Public Works (OPW) has raised concerns that there are still “significant areas” around Ennis that are zoned for housing but which are located in low-lying areas prone to flooding.

Last November, Ennis, Co Clare, was one of the worst-hit areas during the flooding that affected a number of areas across the country.

The Department of the Environment told Clare County Council last year that it must deal with the over-zoning in the greater Ennis area, which it stated provided for a population increase of 100,000 when the increase to 2020 is estimated to be 6,300.

In response, the council is proposing to freeze tracts of land around Ennis for development and has put forward a variation of the Ennis and Environs Plan.

In its response, the department has told the council that it faces ministerial intervention after saying that its proposals to address overzoning in the greater Ennis area do not go far enough.

In its planned variation, the council is giving the go-ahead to more than half the 987 acres zoned for housing to be developed in the first phase, with the remainder to be “frozen”.

The department has said that instead of 540 acres to be included in the first phase, 175 acres for development over the next six years will be sufficient.

However, in its submission on the proposed variation, the OPW says: “This office would like to clarify that there are still significant areas ‘zoned residential’ that are in low-lying areas prone to flooding.” The OPW says that in the variation, there are no additional areas zoned in lands prone to flooding.

The council has also been accused by planning consultant Brendan McGrath, in a submission on behalf of Finn Properties, of not presenting its variation in an open and transparent manner.

It is proposing that a substantial part of the Finn Properties holding is not included in phase one.

Mr McGrath says the failure to carry out the planned variation in an open and transparent manner “is contrary to natural justice and the Department of the Environment’s Development Plan guidelines”.

In his submission, Mr McGrath says “it is difficult, if not impossible to understand the rationale dictating the proposed phasing programme”.

Mr McGrath notes that the Finn Properties-owned land is in a serviced land initiative (SLI) area, close to a neighbourhood centre; less than 2km to the town centre and close to a housing estate.

Mr McGrath cites other lands included in the first phase that are not in an SLI area, not close to a neighbourhood centre or not close to the town centre or to a developed housing estate.

In one instance, the council has proposed one block of land to be included in phase one at Ballylannidy in open countryside near Woodstock on the western outskirts of Ennis.

He says the site fails all four criteria and that the proposed variation includes extensive areas of the Roslevan part of Ennis that are in the river Fergus floodplain.