Co Clare's top planning official has hit back at criticism by the county's top architects that Clare's planning system is not working and needs to be radically overhauled.
In a letter to the architects, Clare County Council's acting director of service for planning Liam Conneally has stated that the contents of their letter before Christmas "undermines the working trust" that existed between the architects and the council's planning department.
In their letter, the architects said: "We are totally frustrated by lack of consistency, poor management structure, lack of productive dialogue, poor communication and absence of a rational coherent, consistent and common-sense approach to planning within the council."
The architects told Mr Conneally that they saw little point in holding any further "agents liaison group" meetings with the planning department "until there has been a significant and tangible overhaul of the present system which, in our view, is clearly not working".
Mr Conneally responded: "I am disappointed at the negative tone and content of the letter." He said he would happy to meet the liaison group "early in the new year to see how matters can be constructively addressed".
