A planning row has broken out between north Clare farm households who have already been engaged in a right-of-way dispute dating back more than two decades.
This follows John Joseph Madigan appealing to An Bord Pleanála against Clare County Council’s decision to grant planning permission to neighbouring farmer, Joseph Scales for the development of American Barn Horses stables at Calluragh West, Ennistymon in north Clare.
The appeal comes more than two years after a circuit court judge pleaded with the Scales and Madigan households in a long running right-of-way dispute not to bring “more hatred, bitterness or even tragedy on any of your families”.
At Ennis Circuit Court in October 2021, Judge Brian O’Callaghan said that court proceedings concerning the right of way at Calluragh, Ennistymon, Co. Clare “have been going in and out of this court for the past 20 years”.
Judge O’Callaghan stated: “It is quite clear to this court that in 20 years that common sense has to yet to visit the households of the Scales and Madigan families.”
In the case concerning Joseph Scales and John Joseph Madigan’s father, PJ, Judge O’Callaghan said: “I am inviting both set of parties to take a step back, buy ‘a bottle of cop-on’ and to drink from it.”
Planning row
The first court order concerning the initial proceedings involving Joseph Scales and PJ Madigan was first made in June 2002 at Ennis Circuit Court.
Since then, a further 11 court orders were made including one in 2003, two in 2006, one in 2007, one in 2008, two in 2009 and two in 2010.
Now, in the separate planning row, architect, Michael Leahy on behalf of John Joseph Madigan has told An Bord Pleanála that the proximity of the Joseph Scales proposal to the road with horses galloping on the exercise area “has the potential to frighten animals, mainly dairy cows, being driven along the road over and back twice daily”.
The appeal states: “Cows when frightened can be dangerous to the drover and this may result in serious injury.”
Michael Leahy said that the Madigan’s home is directly across from the proposed horse stables and exercise area.
He added: “We believe that the proposal will interfere with Mr. Madigan’s ability to carry out his farm business and no consideration has been given to the continued viability of his farm business in the assessment of this application.”
Michael Leahy also stated that “Mr. Madigan has invested heavily in his farm business and is concerned that the proposal will affect the financial viability of his farm”.
The appeal also states that “we feel that moving the proposal further into the Scales’ land would have alleviated this issue” and that “the access is a public right-of-way and is frequently used by tourists”.
The representative for John Joseph Madigan also claimed that after a 2016 planning permission for facilities granted to Joseph Scales, “a substantial area of my client’s land, some 24m x 78m has become unworkable in recent years due to flooding since the shed was built”.
Michael Leahy has requested that the planning permission be refused until the various issues highlighted are addressed.
The council initially granted planning permission after concluding that there is no real likelihood of significant effects on the environment arising from the proposed development.
A decision is due on the appeal by An Bord Pleanála later this year.