Calls have been made for urgent action on dereliction in Clare towns and villages as part of efforts to deal with rural depopulation.
At this month’s meeting of the Killaloe Municipal District Councillor Pat Burke urged the local authority to address the condition of a former Public House on Main Street, Whitegate, which was sold in 1994 and has since fallen into complete dereliction.
The property in question has been on the Derelict Sites Register since September 2024 and Clare County Council says it will be assessed this year in the the context of the Compulsory Acquisition Activation Programme, launched by Government.
Planning permission was sought in September 2023 for the demolition of the property to make way for the construction of five houses on the site, which the planning authority looked favourably on at the time, but no further progress has since been made.
Councillor Burke believes staff in the local authority’s planning department must be “tearing their hair out” over those “flouting the rules” with regard to derelict properties, but he insists progress is critical.
You can listen to the full interview here:
