Supermac’s has admitted that it agreed to reimburse local residents who submitted letters of support for a planned motorway plaza outside Ennis.
But in a statement to Clare FM, the company says that no money has been paid out to date, and it has strongly denied that it was behind fake letters of support.
187 submissions were received by Clare County Council in support of the development at Kilbrecken, but 14 have since been withdrawn, after people said they did not sign the letters sent in their name themselves.
Its emerged that one of the submissions was signed in the name of Clarecastle resident Paddy Russell, who passed away 15 years ago.
In a statement to Clare FM, Supermac’s Ireland Ltd says the company was offered support for the application by some locals, who asked the company to reimburse the €20 submission fee.
It says that believing at the time that the submissions would be fully legitimate, the company agreed to pay the Planning Authority fee, however, no money has been paid by the company to date.
Supermac’s says the company is horrified to learn from the media that this exercise was not conducted legitimately and disowns the actions taken.
The company concludes by saying that it wants to distance itself completely from them, and in such circumstances, will not pay the Planning Authority fees.
Statement from Supermac’s Ireland Ltd.
We were offered support for our application by locals. Those offering the support appear to have decided that the support would be better expressed by individual observations on file. Up to that point we believed that the support was by way of a petition, where people would sign a single letter of support.
It would appear that whoever organised the petition only realised later that there was a fee payable of €20 for each observation and Supermac’s was contacted and asked if the company would refund that fee. Believing at the time that the submissions would be fully legitimate, the company agreed to pay the Planning Authority fee. No money has been paid by the company to date.
This company is horrified to learn from the media that this exercise was not conducted legitimately and disowns the actions taken and wants to distance itself completely from them and in such circumstances the company will not of course pay the Planning Authority fees.
