CLARE COUNTY Council has been accused of trying to breach the property rights of citizens by limiting public access to the grounds of a luxury golf resort.
The local authority is seeking to terminate a right of way at the Doonbeg golf club at sections leading to the fourth and 14th fairways.
Barrister Peter Bland, who is representing objectors to the plan at the €150 million golf resort, said the move "would be an illegal and unlawful act".
On the first day of a two-day oral hearing into the Clare County Council proposal to terminate the right of way, Mr Bland said if councillors voted to extinguish the right, they would be acting outside their powers and their decision would be quashed by the High Court.
The bid by the council to extinguish the right of way within the golf club, providing an alternative access to the beach a short distance away and a car park for 70 spaces, is the latest bid to resolve a long-running and bitter dispute dating back to 2004.
Senior council official Donal Buckley said the proposal "offers safe access to the beach at all times and avoids any traffic accidents".
The move that sparked the dispute was Doonbeg golf club's erection of a 6ft wall across the disputed right of way in 2004 in an attempt to stop vehicles being driven across the course to the beach.
The golf club has since instituted High Court judicial review proceedings of a Bord Pleanála decision ruling that the golf club acted illegally in building the wall without planning permission, which put a stay on any enforcement action by the council on the building of the wall.
At the oral hearing yesterday at Doonbeg community hall, Mr Bland said the real reason behind the extinguishment of the right of way was for Doonbeg to avoid become embroiled in litigation and avoid the declaration of the right of way across its course which would interfere with its business.
Mr Bland asked: "Why should Doonbeg be rewarded for its behaviour and the mess it has got itself into with the judicial review proceedings? Why reward it with what it seeks - the extinguishment of a right of way across its course?"
Legal representative for Doonbeg golf club Desmond Keane said that at all times the golf club had acted within the law and as to whether a right of way existed at the course was a matter of dispute.
The hearing continues today.
