MEMBERS OF Clare County Council are set to end a long running dispute at Doonbeg golf club by voting to extinguish a contentious right of way at the course.
This follows a report circulated to councillors and set to go before next Monday’s September meeting. The council executive is recommending that councillors adopt an order extinguishing the right of way at Doonbeg.
The move will end the public’s right to walk across the 4th and 14th fairways at the Greg Norman-designed Doonbeg golf course. Instead, an alternative right of way is to be provided a short distance from the existing one.
An oral hearing was heard into the extinguishment last October, and the row over the disputed right of way has involved two separate High Court actions and Doonbeg golf club constructing a wall across the right of way.
The council is now free to extinguish the right of way, with two vociferous opponents of the extinguishment – Madeleine Taylor Quinn (FG) and Tom Prendeville (FF) – not having returned to the council after the local elections.
Yesterday, Cllr Bill Chambers (FF) confirmed he will be arguing “forcibly” for the extinguishment.
He said: “The vast, vast majority of the people in west Clare are in favour of the proposal, and there is only a very tiny minority against it. I can’t understand why people would object to it, as it is a great deal for the council and the people. The golf club is to provide a 70-space car-park at the site, and an alternative right of way is going to be provided.”
In his report, oral hearing inspector Marcus O’Connor said some of the club’s actions over the disputed right of way had been ill-advised and could have been handled better in the interests of community relations. He also recognised “that there is an amount of ill-feeling between some of the local community and the golf club”. He said the provision of a car park represented a way forward and was in the common good.
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