*Photograph: John Mangan
A COST BENEFIT of the Cliffs of Moher to surrounding areas of North Clare is to be included as a specific element of a new strategy for one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions.
Preparation is continuing on the draft of the Cliffs of Moher Strategy 2040. It is anticipated that a draft will be adopted by the West Clare Municipal District before November.
In November 2019, Clare County Council signed contracts with Haley Sharpe Design to prepare the strategy as part of a joint initiative between the local authority and Fáilte Ireland. The €398,000 strategy was to be completed over fifteen months.
An appeal to hold public engagements and workshops on the latest draft at four town hall meetings within North Clare with a “particular focus on how the strategy will affect and benefit the host communities where it is located” was issued by Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG), Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) and Cllr Liam Grant (GP) at a recent sitting of the West Clare MD. They flagged the strategy’s importance “to the future sustainability of the host communities of North Clare”.
Two phases of “detailed consultation workshops” have already been held with stakeholders in the local community and business sector with the feedback shaping the strategy, Director of Tourism and the West Clare MD, Leonard Cleary outlined.
Cleary confirmed, “an inclusive communications plan around a third phase of public consultation is being prepared for the draft Cliffs of Moher Strategy that will allow for the public and stakeholders to engage further”. He said facilitated focus groups and stakeholder public meetings in communities will be arranged.
“We want to give people the opportunities to directly input into the process,” Cllr Garrihy explained. He added, “Illustrate for them where the benefit is going to be, we’ve ran into trouble where we didn’t engage with the public to the fullest extent”. The Lisdoonvarna native said, “It has blown up in our face with some of our biggest strategies and wrongly so because the engagement and community piece not done to the nth degree”.
With the previous rounds of consultation, the public have been given the chance to come forward, Cllr Killeen acknowledged. “I attended one for landowners along the Cliff Edge, it was very interesting and very informative, everyone knew where they stood at the end of it,” he recounted.
North Clare needs to see an economic benefit from the Cliffs, Cllr Grant stated, “it is lacking at times as to the economic benefit from the Cliffs of Moher, transport was touched on before at the last meeting and access to the Cliffs, we need to be improving roads and cycleways, people want to see not just what is happening inside the gates but that surrounding areas benefitting”.
Addressing the meeting, Cleary noted that the first two rounds of consultation presented “very positive” and “some challenging” feedback. “We took time to reshape the strategy and take on board some of the feedback,” he said.
He referenced the sudden death of Chris Smith who was the project lead for Haley Sharpe on the strategy and was “a familiar voice in the towns and villages” of the area. “In advance of putting the draft strategy on display, we felt it was important to meet with landowners on coastal walks, we met with two of them to look at priority issues they raised and are now moving forward with a management plan for the coastal walk”.
Director Cleary was hopeful of reverting back in early Autumn with a view to adopting the piece of work. “It is a twenty year strategy but it must be organic and flexible to adapt. I have asked for a specific element on the cost benefit of the Cliffs of Moher to surrounding areas”. He added that a park and ride scheme which will service the Cliffs, the Burren and Doolin is also planned.
