*The old Ennis NS site.
AN ILLEGAL ENCAMPMENT is now occupying the former site of Ennis National School.
Access to the site of the former primary school had been blocked off but the locked gates were forced open on Saturday with two caravans now in situ at the privately owned 4.2 acre site.
Following a case at Ennis District Court on Friday, three caravans were removed from the green area of Clancy Park. Bail was granted to an Ennis father of five at this sitting on the condition that he refrain from putting the caravans on any residential area in Ennis.
It is not yet known if the occupants of this new encampment on the Kilrush Rd are connected to Clancy Park.
Planning permission was granted in November 2022 for the construction of a car park, subject to eleven conditions, one of which included a contribution fee of €32,680 to be paid to Clare County Council by the applicants.
City Cinemas Ltd were behind the car park application. Permission was granted for a temporary period of five years from November 8th 2022 “after which time the use of the site as a car park shall cease and any structures shall be removed from the site, unless a separate grant of planning permission has been made for the continuation of the use and maintenance of the associated structures”.
Access has been fenced off to the site for the past decade following instances of anti-social behaviour including two separate fires, the breaking of 150 plus windows, kicked-in internal doors, grafitti, the removal of copper piping and steel trusses, broken sanitary ware and damage to the roof of the former school building.
Since 2013, the 4.2 acre old Ennis NS site has been vacant following the primary’s relocation to a new state of the art facility in Ashline on the Kilrush Rd.
In 2016, the Diocese of Killaloe sold the site. It had been put on the market by the St Flannan’s (Killaloe) Diocesen Trust with an advised minimum value of €1.2m.
Prior to this sale, Woodhaven Developments Ltd had been in the process of applying for planning permission which they secured from Clare County Council to demolish the old school building with the consent of the Diocese of Killaloe. Developers claimed a deposit had been paid but contracts were not signed by the Killaloe Diocese.
