The Burren National Park is set to receive a new visitor centre.
It comes as the National Parks and Wildlife Service has been given the green light for the project at the North Clare site.
The development will involve the demolition of two buildings both at 1 and 2 Riverview on Church Street in Corofin, which will then pave the way for the construction of a new visitor centre for the Burren National Park.
The Visitor Centre, to be erected on behalf of the National Parks and Wildlife Service will be a single storey building containing a café, nature clasroom, interpretation space, changing facilities, a plant room and two kitchens.
The centre will be flanked by a seventy space car with designated staff and customer bays.
The plans also make provision for a three-storey office building that will include a laboratory for field studies.
A traffic counter analysis carried out by Sierzega Elektronik as part of the application shows that over one week in November 2021, 68,401 vehicles passed proposed location at Riverview with 34% detected in excess of the speed limit.
Clare County Council received five public submissions in relation to the proposal including from former Clare Fianna Fáil TD and Minister for Defence Tony Kileen who stated “it was inconceivable that a state agency would propose to generate traffic between a national park and its visitor centre without provision for sustainable transport.”
Ultimately the local authority granted Planning Permission for the Visitor Centre subject to thirteen conditions.
