Concerns raised over rural homes
ONE-OFF BUILDINGS NOT RECOMMENDED
66 proposals for rural housing have been put forward by councillors.
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COUNTY management has expressed its concerns over the amount of one-off housing proposals that councillors want to insert in the new county development plan. Some 66 proposals for rural housing which would lead to 117 new homes being built in rural and green belt areas in the county, have been put forward by councillors.
Gilbert Power, the council's head of planning, said he realised the pressure that councillors representing rural areas were under on the issue but said that his department could not recommend these one-off building projects. He said to do so would be in direct contravention of the council's rural housing policy and if councillors thought that policy was not working then they should seek to amend it instead of approaching the problem case by case by way of inserting specific objectives into the new plan for individual rural homes.
He said that this approach to the problem could lead to 'certain individuals getting special treatment'. Mr Power acknowledged it was a difficult issue and there was a conflict between trying to protect the character of the county's rural and green belt areas while trying to preserve rural communities. But one-off housing outside the restrictions of the rural housing policy operated by the council would 'over time, take away the uniqueness of our rural areas' according to Mr Power. He said there were other consequences of this approach, including increased uses of septic tanks and the environmental problems that brings and increasing traffic through rural areas. Mr Power said however, that an assessment of the figures relating to planning permissions granted and refused under the rural housing policy gave lie to the notion that the council was 'anti rural housing'.
He said that out of 1,174 applications under the latest policy, 60% were granted which he said showed the council did not operate the policy in an 'unfairly restrictive' way
He said that only 39 applications which the council refused were overturned by An Bord Pleanála.
' That certainly does not indicate that we are working outside the policy or interpreting it in an unduly restrictive way,' the head of planning told councillors.
- John MANNING
