Mullaghmore visitor controls `aspirational'

If planning permission was granted for visitor facilities at Mullaghmore it would pre-empt a community-based approach to managing and facilitating visitor access to the Burren National Park.

That is the view of the Burren Action Group given during the final day of a Bord Pleanala oral hearing in Ennis, Co Clare, yesterday. The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, has appealed against the decision of Clare County Council to refuse planning permission for visitor facilities at Mullaghmore.

An environmental consultant, Mr Jack O'Sullivan, speaking for the action group, said the proposal would lead to an increase in visitors to an area which was unsuitable or incapable of dealing with such numbers.

"The proposals to control and manage visitor numbers are aspirational, are based on facilities which do not exist and on suggested measures which are unlikely to be effective."

The group was supported in its opposition to the proposal by Ms Jeanne Meldon, planning consultant, acting on behalf of An Taisce. She urged the board to ensure that the proposal did not proceed so that conservation could take precedence in the special landscape.

She said uncertainty remained over some key issues, including visitor impact in the area; visitor management; and the availability of a safe, reliable sewage disposal system without risk of damage to a highly-sensitive environment.

However, in his closing statement, Mr Eamon Galligan, for the Minister, said: "The provision of an entry point with basic physical facilities comprising toilets, a car-park, ranger accommodation and a waiting area will provide a management tool for the monitoring and control of visitor impacts on the National Park and the candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC).

"One cannot take an elitist approach. There should be access by interested members of the public unless it is actually necessary to have very restricted access in the interests of the conservation of the SAC."

He claimed the action group and An Taisce had not produced convincing evidence that there would be any significant damage to the area's integrity.

"They have not been able to demonstrate that there is any real risk to any protected species or flora or fauna. In fact the evidence of the hearing has confirmed that there are no priority species within the National Park as a whole."

He said the proposed development site was a suitable location for an entry point which would provide an acceptable level of visitor access while providing a management tool for conservation.

A ruling is expected before October 13th.