Mayor Sylvia Cooney-Sheehan, a vehement opponent of Carrick Town Council’s Supplementary Development Contribution Scheme (SDCS).
The fate of Carrick-on-Suir’s Supplementary Development Contribution Scheme (SDCS) has been deferred to the January meeting of Carrick Town Council following last Monday’s monthly meeting which sat for over three hours.
The call for the charge’s removal was led by Mayor Sylvia Cooney-Sheehan, one of the appellants who convinced An Bord Pleanála to overturn the Council’s granting permission for the €50 million Riussuir project.
As previously reported in The Munster Express, the SDCS has been a source of huge controversy since first implemented in July 2008.
The charge was introduced as a means of financing the cost of a new bridge and ancillary supports to the Riussuir development, which proposed the construction of a shopping centre, discount store and 12 retail units.
But the SDCS’s return of €15,810 since would have barely taken a slice out of the potential €4 million outlay the Council could have been forced to come up with had the project proceeded.
It’s also believed that two local businessmen who wished to move to larger premises within the ‘SDCS’ zone opted against doing so due to the €45,000 and €25,000 charges they would have been respectively forced to pay.
The SDCS cannot be removed or amended until the eight-week judicial review period in which Riussiur can appeal An Bord’s decision has expired, Senior Planner Michael Lynch told the meeting.
The Limerick-based company have until January 15th 2010 to appeal.
Meanwhile, South Tipperary County Council remains committed to opening a landfill facility at Hardbog, Grangemoclker, a planning saga that’s about to enter a 14th year.
“We have done everything we can over the last 12 years to bring this badly needed landfill on board because it is essential for domestic, business and industrial waste but unfortunately we have been thwarted at every turn,” said Council official Jimmy Harvey.
An application for a landfill operating licence was first sought by the County Council in November 1997.
But, as anyone who has driven through the village will know only too well over the past dozen years, stubborn local resistance has been led by the Hardbog Grangemockler Environment Group.
A series of judicial reviews have been heard over the past decade, with the High Court refusing the Council’s application in December 2006.
However, the Court finally found in the Council’s favour in October 2008, but it is believed that a Supreme Court appeal by the development’s opponents could be in the offing.
Said Mr Harney: “At the moment, we cannot put a timeframe (on the project’s go-ahead but) we are doing all we can.”
