Grave ruling ‘heavy handed’

AN APPEAL by the Department of the Environment against a Clare community’s decision to build a graveyard extension on the outskirts of Ennis “is unwarranted and heavy handed”.

That is the view of Green party councillor Brian Meaney who said the appeal by the department against the Templemaley graveyard extension “takes no account of the pressures on the Parish of Doora-Barefield to provide space for people in that part of the Parish to bury their dead”.

Last month, Clare County Council gave the plan the go-ahead with the department the only party to appeal to An Bord Pleanála.

Mr Meaney said: “A land owner has generously made land available adjoining an existing graveyard and the department are snubbing an act of generosity. In this matter, I find the actions of the department irresponsible. The community have been taking care of this ancient church and graveyard long before the department had an interest.”

He said they had a “blinkered view” of how a community should interact with its surroundings.

“While I acknowledge the good intent of the department, its appeal assumes that the community were some how intent on damaging the beautiful landscape in the vicinity of this graveyard. The opposite is the case. The community, in previous planning actions, have resisted inappropriate development around this graveyard,” Mr Meaney said.

In its appeal against the Templemaley extension, the department said the extension would represent “an unnecessary and unsustainable visual impact from the proposed development, being located upslope of, and overlooking, the existing church and graveyard”.

“The extension in this location would also have an undue impact on the context and setting of the monument,” it said.

Yesterday, parish priest Fr Jerry Carey said he is following procedures and will lodge a submission next week in response to the appeal. A decision is due on the appeal later this year.