For the seventh year in succession, the Burren Action Group is holding a New Year's Day walk around the folded limestone mountain of Mullaghmore in Co Clare, to protest against continuing plans for a visitor centre in the area.
The action group's campaign is now entering its eighth year, with no end yet in sight. "We face the New Year in the hope that we will be able, at long last, to put the dreadful plans for Mullaghmore to rest," the group said in its latest newsletter.
Last month Clare County Council voted to defer consideration of the latest plans for a further six months after it became clear that those who favour the development would not be able to muster the required 75 per cent majority to contravene the county plan.
The motion to defer a vote was proposed by Mr Michael Kelly (FF), who said more time was needed so that the local communities in Corofin and Kilfenora could engage in dialogue with the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, who also represents Clare.
The motion was carried by 19 votes to 11: 18 Fianna Fail and one independent councillor to five Fine Gael, four independent, one Labour and one Progressive Democrats councillor.
In a statement afterwards the Burren Action Group said the Fianna Fail group, which has consistently backed plans for a visitor centre at Mullaghmore, was now attempting to delay a decision until a new county development plan was adopted.
Since the latest scheme for a scaled-down visitor centre is favoured by the county manager, Mr William Moloney, with the retention of a sewage treatment plant to cater for possible expansion, it is likely that the site will be rezoned in the new county plan.
With a draft of this plan expected in the new year, such a move would set aside the need to secure the support of 24 of the 32 councillors for a "material contravention" of the existing county plan.
All it would need would be a simple majority of those present to rezone the site.
The Burren Action Group's annual Save Mullaghmore Walk is due to start with the sound of pipes at 12.30 p.m. tomorrow at the end of the green road near Kilnaboy, just 100 yards from the OPW site.
