D-Day for controversial Claremorris biopark

D-Day for controversial Claremorris Biopark


Councillors to vote on rezoning of land for facility that has divided town

Michael Commins

MAYO County councillors will today play a vital role in deciding whether or not the controversial Claremorris Biopark project will have a future.
A meeting is to take place of County Councillors in Castlebar this morning (Tuesday), where a decision is to be made on the zoning of lands for the Biopark, a project that has caused deep division in public opinion in Claremorris.
Those supporting the establishment of the Biopark project beside Kilbeg, off the Ballyhaunis road in the town, say that if the councillors reject the proposal to rezone the land in question, the proposed €30m project and potential for 150 jobs will be lost to the town and will move to County Clare.
The planned project has led to substantial divisions in sections of the local community. Strong support both for and against the project can be found in the area and several public meetings, supporting both sides, have been held in the town.
It is not known what the likely outcome of the voting process will be, but Fine Gael, who have a majority on Mayo County Council, were due to have a party meeting at 9am this morning to decide whether councillors would have a free vote on the issue or if they would have to follow the party whip process.
The Mayo News understands that up to half of the Fine Gael councillors are in favour of having a free vote, making the outcome even more difficult to gauge.

Jobs debate
‘Progress For Claremorris’, a group supporting the project and who have close on 1,000 ‘likes’ on their Facebook page, says Claremorris is in serious danger of losing the jobs if the councillors do not support the rezoning call today. “Once again due to our ‘No to everything town’ and the constant misinformation from minority groups, we have lost more jobs to the east of the country.
“We have received confirmation from Dundalk of the move of jobs planned for Claremorris to that town. Those jobs are now lost to Claremorris. This vote by the councillors in Castlebar will now determine if the remaining jobs are to remain in Mayo or not.”
However, a statement, signed local man by Tom Shanahan and issued last week, contains a list of people who are against the proposed Claremorris facility.
“This project is being sugar-coated as a healthy job creation by a group who would directly benefit from its construction,” he claims. “There is an abundance of research which clearly highlights the dangers of putting one of these facilities in such a location.
“I ask the councillors not to ignore the 116 people (and growing) who have signed this petition. We are fully supportive of job creation but the ends do not justify the means and the negatives will outweigh the positives with one of these facilities, not to mention the fact that this proposal involves placing three large wood burning chimneys next to a secondary school, wildlife, farming land and a residential area.”
In a letter to Jimmy O’Boyle, Drumkeen, Claremorris, the company behind the proposed venture stated: “Under no circumstances do Imperative Energy, Green Belt or Biopharmed-West Ltd support incineration of any type. The promoters have never supported incineration, will never support incineration and agree totally with your proposal that incineration should never be brought to Claremorris.”
Local Claremorris Independent councillor, Richard Finn, is supporting the venture and will propose the adoption of the rezoning of the lands at the meeting.
“Fine Gael has the majority on the Council. It will be interesting to see if they allow a free vote. I expect Damien Ryan from Fianna FΡil to second my proposal. A lot of jobs and investment in Claremorris are depending on this vote. The company is ready to move elsewhere and I believe they will be welcomed with open arms almost anywhere in the country,” he stated.
The meeting on the County Development Plan was due to get underway at 11am this morning with the rezoning of land for the Biopark one of the issues up for discussion.
According to Cllr Finn, rezoning can still go ahead if a vote isn’t passed as it can go for a material contravention. However, he does not envisage that this will happen.