A FINE Gael TD who called recently for measures to prevent the widespread closure of pubs in rural Ireland has been accused of “blatant hypocrisy” by a neighbour who runs a pub in his hometown in Co Roscommon.
Colman Byrne, owner of the Lir Cafe Bar at Market Street, Ballaghaderreen, criticised John O’Mahony TD for objecting to the proposed extension of his family-run premises, a popular late bar and entertainment venue.
Mr O’Mahony received widespread media coverage some months ago when he highlighted the fact that rural pubs were closing down at a rate of almost one a day. Stressing the opportunities that rural pubs provided for social contact, Mr O’Mahony proposed rural pubs that ran buses for their customers should be exempt from vehicle registration tax for these buses.
Mr Byrne, whose premises are just across the road from Mr O’Mahony’s family residence, issued a strongly worded statement claiming the TD had put 20 jobs at risk by his objection.
Last February Roscommon County Council refused planning permission for the extension. Among the reasons given were that the site was in an area zoned residential in the county development plan. The proposal would also endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard as the access road from the car park to the N5 was too narrow to safely accommodate pedestrians and traffic, council planners said.
“Surely in these recessionary times the role of a public representative is to support local businesses,” Mr Byrne said yesterday.
But Mr O’Mahony rejected the suggestion that he or the other objectors were to blame for the refusal. He pointed out the council’s refusal had to do with the residential zoning of the area and concerns about traffic.
“I have a clear conscience on this . . . From my point of view I am totally supportive of businesses that operate within the regulations,” he said.
Mr Byrne intends lodging a fresh application for planning permission with the council.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Showing posts with label rural planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rural planning. Show all posts
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Court orders demolition of home
The High Court has ordered the demolition within two years of the two-storey home of a couple and their three children in Co Meath built by them after Meath County Council refused planning permission for a house half its size.
Michael and Rose Murray, who have lived in the house at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen, near Navan, since December 2006, had pleaded against the demolition order.
With “very great regret”, Mr Justice John Edwards agreed with the council that the unauthorised development carried out by the couple was not a “minor infraction” but “a flagrant breach of the planning laws” which was “completely unjustified”.
“They have sought to drive a coach and four through the planning laws and that cannot be permitted no matter how frustrated they may have felt on account of earlier refusals,” he said.
While demolition would impose a great hardship especially as Mr Murray was now a victim of the general downturn in the building industry, the law “must be upheld”.
It was “simply preposterous for the couple to argue the house was a farm when it was “a very large and imposing stone clad two-storey dwelling house with a curved drive leading up to it and extensive laws in front of it”, he added.
On humanitarian grounds, and “in light of the particularly hard economic times we live in”, the judge said he would place a two-year stay on the demolition order.
In opposing the order, Mrs Rose Murray said after they were refused permission for several sites, she felt there was no prospect they would ever get permission. It was “in desperation” they decided to proceed and build the house and their only motive was to secure a safe and nice place in which to bring up their children.
In June 2006, the Council had refused Mr Murray permission for a house on the lands.
In February 2007, following a complaint from a member of the public, the council became aware a large house of some 588 square metres (6,229 sq feet) had been built on the lands and the Murrays were living there. The house was about twice the size of the dwelling for which the Council had refused permission.
In March 2007, the council wrote to Mr Murray stating the house had no planning permission and should be immediately demolished. On March 12th, Mr Murray applied for permission to retain an unauthorised development.
In May 2007, the council refused retention permission on grounds it would result in excessive density of development and excessive concentration of waste water treatment systems in an unserviced rural area, seriously injuring the visual amenities of the area and militating against preservation of the rural environment.
The council also said the two-storey dwelling was out of character with existing dwellings in terms of scale, height and design and represented “an unduly prominent and incongruous feature” in the local landscape.
Mr Murray appealed to An Bord Pleanála, which on June 5th 2009 dismissed the appeal and upheld the Council’s view of the development.
In opposing the application for demolition, Mr Murray said he had married on August 14th 1999 and was a native of the area. His family home was less than half a mile away from the house, and he and his wife were very involved in the local community.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Michael and Rose Murray, who have lived in the house at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen, near Navan, since December 2006, had pleaded against the demolition order.
With “very great regret”, Mr Justice John Edwards agreed with the council that the unauthorised development carried out by the couple was not a “minor infraction” but “a flagrant breach of the planning laws” which was “completely unjustified”.
“They have sought to drive a coach and four through the planning laws and that cannot be permitted no matter how frustrated they may have felt on account of earlier refusals,” he said.
While demolition would impose a great hardship especially as Mr Murray was now a victim of the general downturn in the building industry, the law “must be upheld”.
It was “simply preposterous for the couple to argue the house was a farm when it was “a very large and imposing stone clad two-storey dwelling house with a curved drive leading up to it and extensive laws in front of it”, he added.
On humanitarian grounds, and “in light of the particularly hard economic times we live in”, the judge said he would place a two-year stay on the demolition order.
In opposing the order, Mrs Rose Murray said after they were refused permission for several sites, she felt there was no prospect they would ever get permission. It was “in desperation” they decided to proceed and build the house and their only motive was to secure a safe and nice place in which to bring up their children.
In June 2006, the Council had refused Mr Murray permission for a house on the lands.
In February 2007, following a complaint from a member of the public, the council became aware a large house of some 588 square metres (6,229 sq feet) had been built on the lands and the Murrays were living there. The house was about twice the size of the dwelling for which the Council had refused permission.
In March 2007, the council wrote to Mr Murray stating the house had no planning permission and should be immediately demolished. On March 12th, Mr Murray applied for permission to retain an unauthorised development.
In May 2007, the council refused retention permission on grounds it would result in excessive density of development and excessive concentration of waste water treatment systems in an unserviced rural area, seriously injuring the visual amenities of the area and militating against preservation of the rural environment.
The council also said the two-storey dwelling was out of character with existing dwellings in terms of scale, height and design and represented “an unduly prominent and incongruous feature” in the local landscape.
Mr Murray appealed to An Bord Pleanála, which on June 5th 2009 dismissed the appeal and upheld the Council’s view of the development.
In opposing the application for demolition, Mr Murray said he had married on August 14th 1999 and was a native of the area. His family home was less than half a mile away from the house, and he and his wife were very involved in the local community.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Saturday, 22 November 2008
State loses EU battle over planning
IRELAND HAS lost a legal battle against the European Commission for failing to screen small-scale farm projects for possible environmental impact assessments.
In a ruling handed down on Thursday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that the Government had not brought fully into Irish law a 1985 directive requiring it to examine the ecological effects of agricultural schemes before granting planning permission for them.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley accepted the court's decision and said his department would "closely examine" the detailed judgment before giving a legislative response.
The case dates back to 2001, when the EC sent a letter of formal notice to the Government relating to a trial salmon farm on the Kenmare estuary in Co Kerry.
Court action followed in 2003, and the case came to the European Court of Justice three years later.
Under EU rules, member states are allowed to set thresholds under which certain projects can be exempted from mandatory impact assessments, but only if those projects do not have a negative effect on the environment.
In order to assess whether a development would have such an effect, planning authorities must look at certain conditions set out in the EU's directive, including the nature, location and cumulative environmental impact of the planned development.
The commission's case rested on the fact that, in allowing planning authorities to decide whether projects under a certain size required impact assessments, Ireland failed to fully take into account the individual merits of each development based on these conditions. A spokesperson for EU environment chief Stavros Dimas said that the commission welcomes the decision and "looks forward to working constructively with the Irish authorities to ensure that important ecological sites will be better protected in future".
Ireland has been ordered to pay the costs incurred by the commission during the proceedings. Poland, which intervened to support Ireland's case last year, has been told to pay its own costs.
In a separate preliminary ruling also handed down on Thursday, the European Court of Justice found that an Irish Beef Industry Development Society scheme, where some beef processors undertook to leave the processing industry, amounts to a restriction of competition in the industry.
The Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
In a ruling handed down on Thursday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that the Government had not brought fully into Irish law a 1985 directive requiring it to examine the ecological effects of agricultural schemes before granting planning permission for them.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley accepted the court's decision and said his department would "closely examine" the detailed judgment before giving a legislative response.
The case dates back to 2001, when the EC sent a letter of formal notice to the Government relating to a trial salmon farm on the Kenmare estuary in Co Kerry.
Court action followed in 2003, and the case came to the European Court of Justice three years later.
Under EU rules, member states are allowed to set thresholds under which certain projects can be exempted from mandatory impact assessments, but only if those projects do not have a negative effect on the environment.
In order to assess whether a development would have such an effect, planning authorities must look at certain conditions set out in the EU's directive, including the nature, location and cumulative environmental impact of the planned development.
The commission's case rested on the fact that, in allowing planning authorities to decide whether projects under a certain size required impact assessments, Ireland failed to fully take into account the individual merits of each development based on these conditions. A spokesperson for EU environment chief Stavros Dimas said that the commission welcomes the decision and "looks forward to working constructively with the Irish authorities to ensure that important ecological sites will be better protected in future".
Ireland has been ordered to pay the costs incurred by the commission during the proceedings. Poland, which intervened to support Ireland's case last year, has been told to pay its own costs.
In a separate preliminary ruling also handed down on Thursday, the European Court of Justice found that an Irish Beef Industry Development Society scheme, where some beef processors undertook to leave the processing industry, amounts to a restriction of competition in the industry.
The Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Dáil group told planning system unjust for those in rural Ireland
AN ALLEGATION that there was "neither fairness, equality, justice, democracy or accountability" in the planning system in Ireland for rural society was made at an Oireachtas committee yesterday.
Chairman of the Irish Rural Dwellers' Association (IRDA), James Doyle, made the charges to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
He told the committee that a policy of urbanisation was being forced on rural culture , with scant respect for historical settlement patterns, stretching back thousands of years.
Jim Connolly, acting secretary of the association, said his organisation's major complaint was the lack of genuine rural representation on An Bord Pleanála, and the legality of its decisions because of that.
"One of Ireland's most important industries, farming, is represented on the board since 2002 by two professional career planners who were employed by the board as senior planning inspectors at the time of their nomination by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu)," he said.
"Both of these were reappointed for a further five years by the then minister Dick Roche in 2007. They can be reappointed in 2012 for a final five-year term under the Planning Act - a potential of 15 years," he said.
Despite repeated questions to Minister for the Environment John Gormley, John O Connor, chairman of An Bord Pleanála and David Begg, chief executive of Ictu, no proper answers in relation to the nominations and appointments had been forthcoming.
He said one panel in 2001 was made up of Ictu, IFA, the ICMSA, the ICA and Muintir na Tíre and the legislation stated that only one member would be selected from this panel.
"Nonetheless, in 2002, two senior planning inspectors were appointed to the board through being nominated by the Ictu at the same time," he said.
"Given there is widespread unease regarding the total lack of rural representation on the board as well as the fact that the original appointments for five years have been extended to 10 years, the IRDA contend that nothing short of an inquiry in depth, under oath will reveal the full details surrounding the appointments," said Mr Connolly.
TDs and senators expressed support for the association's view, some claiming that rural people were being denied permission to build homes because of urban attitudes to rural areas.
The Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Chairman of the Irish Rural Dwellers' Association (IRDA), James Doyle, made the charges to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
He told the committee that a policy of urbanisation was being forced on rural culture , with scant respect for historical settlement patterns, stretching back thousands of years.
Jim Connolly, acting secretary of the association, said his organisation's major complaint was the lack of genuine rural representation on An Bord Pleanála, and the legality of its decisions because of that.
"One of Ireland's most important industries, farming, is represented on the board since 2002 by two professional career planners who were employed by the board as senior planning inspectors at the time of their nomination by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu)," he said.
"Both of these were reappointed for a further five years by the then minister Dick Roche in 2007. They can be reappointed in 2012 for a final five-year term under the Planning Act - a potential of 15 years," he said.
Despite repeated questions to Minister for the Environment John Gormley, John O Connor, chairman of An Bord Pleanála and David Begg, chief executive of Ictu, no proper answers in relation to the nominations and appointments had been forthcoming.
He said one panel in 2001 was made up of Ictu, IFA, the ICMSA, the ICA and Muintir na Tíre and the legislation stated that only one member would be selected from this panel.
"Nonetheless, in 2002, two senior planning inspectors were appointed to the board through being nominated by the Ictu at the same time," he said.
"Given there is widespread unease regarding the total lack of rural representation on the board as well as the fact that the original appointments for five years have been extended to 10 years, the IRDA contend that nothing short of an inquiry in depth, under oath will reveal the full details surrounding the appointments," said Mr Connolly.
TDs and senators expressed support for the association's view, some claiming that rural people were being denied permission to build homes because of urban attitudes to rural areas.
The Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Friday, 16 May 2008
Policy against rural decline
SUPPORTING rural communities who want to transform their local area into dynamic regions capable of attracting visitors, investors or residents must be placed at the centre of policy, it was suggested yesterday.
Irish Rural Link, the national organisation campaigning for sustainable rural communities, is examining how these places can ensure their future at its national conference in Charleville, Co Cork.
Seamus Boland, chief executive, said rural communities are facing challenges such as the decline in traditional areas of employment, reduced public services and an ageing population.
“Many of these communities feel ... they don’t have the skills or resources to deal with the challenges they face.
“Many commentators... argue in a globalised world only major city-regions will compete economically and getting infrastructure and services right in our cities... should be the national priority,” he said.
However, citing examples of rural communities that have transformed their locality, Mr Boland referred to communities that have taken previously unused buildings or land and transformed them into tourist attractions.
Communities have established co-ops to run a local shop which has transformed village life, while community-owned renewable energy resources have been developed.
Irish Examiner
www.buckplanning.ie
Irish Rural Link, the national organisation campaigning for sustainable rural communities, is examining how these places can ensure their future at its national conference in Charleville, Co Cork.
Seamus Boland, chief executive, said rural communities are facing challenges such as the decline in traditional areas of employment, reduced public services and an ageing population.
“Many of these communities feel ... they don’t have the skills or resources to deal with the challenges they face.
“Many commentators... argue in a globalised world only major city-regions will compete economically and getting infrastructure and services right in our cities... should be the national priority,” he said.
However, citing examples of rural communities that have transformed their locality, Mr Boland referred to communities that have taken previously unused buildings or land and transformed them into tourist attractions.
Communities have established co-ops to run a local shop which has transformed village life, while community-owned renewable energy resources have been developed.
Irish Examiner
www.buckplanning.ie
Friday, 27 July 2007
EU supports €6.52bn rural plan
The European Commission is to back six-year rural development plans for Ireland North and South worth more than €6.52 billion. Some £500 million (€746 million) of this will be allocated by the Stormont Executive.
The EU rural development committee yesterday sanctioned the Republic's rural development package, which will focus on land management, the environment and increasing the competitiveness of the agri-food sector.
Some €2.33 billion of the funding will be provided by the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development and the balance will come from the national exchequer.
"This programme represents unprecedented investment in Irish agriculture and will enhance our rural environment and help to secure farmers' income into the future," said Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan.
"This €5.78 billion package is clear evidence of this Government's commitment to farmers and to rural life in Ireland."
The main aims of the rural development package are to support the development of rural areas, sustainable development and the provision of public goods.
The allocation will also back programmes aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, ensuring a competitive agri-food sector, addressing structural problems in the industry and the need for on-farm capital investment; and boosting the quality of life in rural areas.
In Belfast, the announcement was welcomed by Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew.
"I am very pleased that our programme is not just the first programme across these islands to be approved, but is in the top 10 of all programmes to be approved so far by the European Commission." The Northern rural development plan comprises some 14 individual measures drawn up to back hard-hit local rural economies.
Ms Gildernew said she had pressed Commissioner Fischer Boel and Commission president José Manuel Barroso on the need for early approval of the proposed rural development plan when they visited Northern Ireland in May.
"The announcement represents recognition by Europe of how important rural communities are to the fabric of this region. It is also confirmation of how well President Barroso and Commissioner Fischer Boel listened to our needs during their visits earlier this year when the president announced his initiative to set-up a European Commission Taskforce. This taskforce is helping us get the most of our membership of the EU and is facilitating the early approval of the new round of EU Programmes 2007-13."
Dan Keenan & Jamie Smyth
© 2007 The Irish Times
The EU rural development committee yesterday sanctioned the Republic's rural development package, which will focus on land management, the environment and increasing the competitiveness of the agri-food sector.
Some €2.33 billion of the funding will be provided by the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development and the balance will come from the national exchequer.
"This programme represents unprecedented investment in Irish agriculture and will enhance our rural environment and help to secure farmers' income into the future," said Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan.
"This €5.78 billion package is clear evidence of this Government's commitment to farmers and to rural life in Ireland."
The main aims of the rural development package are to support the development of rural areas, sustainable development and the provision of public goods.
The allocation will also back programmes aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, ensuring a competitive agri-food sector, addressing structural problems in the industry and the need for on-farm capital investment; and boosting the quality of life in rural areas.
In Belfast, the announcement was welcomed by Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew.
"I am very pleased that our programme is not just the first programme across these islands to be approved, but is in the top 10 of all programmes to be approved so far by the European Commission." The Northern rural development plan comprises some 14 individual measures drawn up to back hard-hit local rural economies.
Ms Gildernew said she had pressed Commissioner Fischer Boel and Commission president José Manuel Barroso on the need for early approval of the proposed rural development plan when they visited Northern Ireland in May.
"The announcement represents recognition by Europe of how important rural communities are to the fabric of this region. It is also confirmation of how well President Barroso and Commissioner Fischer Boel listened to our needs during their visits earlier this year when the president announced his initiative to set-up a European Commission Taskforce. This taskforce is helping us get the most of our membership of the EU and is facilitating the early approval of the new round of EU Programmes 2007-13."
Dan Keenan & Jamie Smyth
© 2007 The Irish Times
Sunday, 15 July 2007
Restrictions’ on turf cutting in bogs are ‘unacceptable’
THE decision to bring down the curtain in 2008 on the rural tradition of cutting turf in local bogs is being challenged by a farming leader in north Munster.
Former Limerick IFA Chairman Michael O’Flynn has challenged the SAC (Special Areas of Conservation) designation of bogs countrywide from 2008 as premature and contravening an existing agreement.
The west Limerick farmer told a Limerick IFA meeting the restrictions being imposed next year “are unacceptable”. He said: “In IFA, we have a deal that any further restrictions on the use of bogs will not be applied until 2012.
This was agreed with Minister Martin Cullen and it must be honoured”. He said SAC designation restrictions proposed for 2008 would mean that local farmers and others who cut turf in bogs in their area for many generations will no longer be permitted to do.
He said that the IFA had come across situations where farmers owning large areas of bog were willing to allow most of the area to be taken over, but they would not be allowed to keep a small area to cut turf for their own use.
* Environment, Heritage and Local Government Minister John Gormley has confirmed in the Dáil that he does not propose to extend beyond 2008 a turf cutting derogation for Special Areas of Conservation, and beyond 2014 for Natural Heritage Areas, because of the importance of Ireland’s bogs in European terms, and recent evidence that cutting for domestic purposes and related activities is damaging remaining bogs. He was replying to a question from Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten.
Martin Ryan
© Irish Examiner
Former Limerick IFA Chairman Michael O’Flynn has challenged the SAC (Special Areas of Conservation) designation of bogs countrywide from 2008 as premature and contravening an existing agreement.
The west Limerick farmer told a Limerick IFA meeting the restrictions being imposed next year “are unacceptable”. He said: “In IFA, we have a deal that any further restrictions on the use of bogs will not be applied until 2012.
This was agreed with Minister Martin Cullen and it must be honoured”. He said SAC designation restrictions proposed for 2008 would mean that local farmers and others who cut turf in bogs in their area for many generations will no longer be permitted to do.
He said that the IFA had come across situations where farmers owning large areas of bog were willing to allow most of the area to be taken over, but they would not be allowed to keep a small area to cut turf for their own use.
* Environment, Heritage and Local Government Minister John Gormley has confirmed in the Dáil that he does not propose to extend beyond 2008 a turf cutting derogation for Special Areas of Conservation, and beyond 2014 for Natural Heritage Areas, because of the importance of Ireland’s bogs in European terms, and recent evidence that cutting for domestic purposes and related activities is damaging remaining bogs. He was replying to a question from Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten.
Martin Ryan
© Irish Examiner
Climbers call on Ó Cuív for access legislation
The Mountaineering Council of Ireland called on the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs yesterday to propose legislation that will provide people with access to private sections of the Irish countryside for recreational purposes.
The call was made after a report on the issue by a legal group set up by the Minister, Éamon Ó Cuív, said "minor interference" with property rights to allow people to enjoy land could be imposed for the benefit of Irish people "without triggering a requirement for compensation".
The report has been sent to Comhairle Na Tuaithe, the countryside council, for it to consider.
"Ireland is alone in Europe in not having access legislation and this expert group clearly sets out a way forward which we hope will be taken up by Minister Ó Cuív," Roger Garland, of the Mountaineering Council of Ireland (MCI), said.
The MCI said farming bodies and landowners should accept that legislation is no threat, but rather "recognition of a modern European view of the sustainable long-term public use of the countryside which is one of this country's most valuable assets".
IFA president Pádraig Walshe regretted the stance taken by the mountaineering council.
"Minister Ó Cuív's expert group is applying a legal solution when consultation and co-operation is the way forward," he said.
Mr Walshe said it was incorrect to say that Comhairle na Tuaithe was moving towards providing a permissive path scheme. "The most recent report said the issues have to be addressed by a range of solutions which must be tailored to specific circumstances," he said.
Fáilte Ireland said 300,000 visitors to Ireland in 2005 intended to go walking or hiking. These people spent €200 million.
Jackie Rumley of Keep Ireland Open said the opening of walkways in Ireland would benefit farmers and their communities.
"When walkers were coming freely to Ireland up to a few years ago they were more likely to return home and buy Irish farm produce because of the good experiences they associated with their time here," he said.
Steven Carroll
© 2007 The Irish Times
The call was made after a report on the issue by a legal group set up by the Minister, Éamon Ó Cuív, said "minor interference" with property rights to allow people to enjoy land could be imposed for the benefit of Irish people "without triggering a requirement for compensation".
The report has been sent to Comhairle Na Tuaithe, the countryside council, for it to consider.
"Ireland is alone in Europe in not having access legislation and this expert group clearly sets out a way forward which we hope will be taken up by Minister Ó Cuív," Roger Garland, of the Mountaineering Council of Ireland (MCI), said.
The MCI said farming bodies and landowners should accept that legislation is no threat, but rather "recognition of a modern European view of the sustainable long-term public use of the countryside which is one of this country's most valuable assets".
IFA president Pádraig Walshe regretted the stance taken by the mountaineering council.
"Minister Ó Cuív's expert group is applying a legal solution when consultation and co-operation is the way forward," he said.
Mr Walshe said it was incorrect to say that Comhairle na Tuaithe was moving towards providing a permissive path scheme. "The most recent report said the issues have to be addressed by a range of solutions which must be tailored to specific circumstances," he said.
Fáilte Ireland said 300,000 visitors to Ireland in 2005 intended to go walking or hiking. These people spent €200 million.
Jackie Rumley of Keep Ireland Open said the opening of walkways in Ireland would benefit farmers and their communities.
"When walkers were coming freely to Ireland up to a few years ago they were more likely to return home and buy Irish farm produce because of the good experiences they associated with their time here," he said.
Steven Carroll
© 2007 The Irish Times
Friday, 22 June 2007
Planning twist over Bev's holiday home
THE millionaire partner of newly elected TD Beverley Flynn built the couple's idyllic holiday home using planning permission obtained by a local woman living in a council house.
Builder Tony Gaughan bought the one hectare site for the scenic retreat on the edge of the Atlantic in 1997.
The 50-year-old property developer was able to use planning permission which had been obtained by the daughter of the landowner in Doohoma, north Mayo, just four months earlier.
He is a frequent visitor to the home with his partner Ms Flynn, with whom he has two children.
She is currently facing bankruptcy proceedings taken by RTE over her failure to pay almost €3m in legal costs from her failed libel case.
The holiday home is located in an area which is now the subject of planning restrictions due to its scenic beauty.
It is just 200 metres from a sandy beach and has uninterrupted views of Tullaghan Bay and Achill Island.
Although the planning climate was much looser in Mayo in 1997, it would still have been extremely difficult to secure a site in one of the most scenic parts of the village.
However, the woman who made the planning permission application was Breege Cooney, a single woman living in a council house in Doohoma.
Her late father John owned the site at the time. And her connection to the land meant her planning application was almost guaranteed to succeed.
An investigation by the Irish Independent has revealed the application was made on her behalf by Castlebar-based planning agent John Hamrock, who has made more than a dozen planning applications for Mr Gaughan.
Mr Hamrock was unavailable for comment last night.
Ms Cooney confirmed to the Irish Independent that she had never lived in the house.
She said she allowed her name to be used on the planning application for the site as part of an arrangement between herself and Mr Gaughan.
But she would not reveal any further details.
"What happened between me and Tony was between ourselves," she said.
Ms Cooney and her family had been living in a run-down council house but, in 1998, Mayo council built a new bungalow for them.
The Irish Independent contacted Mr Gaughan, who denied that he had made any arrangement with Ms Cooney.
He also denied that he had asked her to seek planning permission for a house on the site.
Mr Gaughan said he had bought the site from Ms Cooney's father John (now deceased) after the planning permission had been granted, and that all his actions had been "100pc legit".
When asked if the involvement of Mr Hamrock in the planning application showed a connection to him, Mr Gaughan said the agent carried out lots of planning applications for people all over the North Mayo area.
Mayo county council insisted Mr Gaughan had not broken any planning laws.
"It's not an issue for us, whatever happened before or after the planning permission was given," a spokesman said. He rejected claims the council was "going easy" on Mr Gaughan.
Mr Gaughan and Ms Flynn's main residence is a mansion outside Castlebar, which has been dubbed 'Beverley Hills' by locals.
Ms Flynn did not return a call seeking comment about the revelations.
Michael Brennan
Irish Independent
Builder Tony Gaughan bought the one hectare site for the scenic retreat on the edge of the Atlantic in 1997.
The 50-year-old property developer was able to use planning permission which had been obtained by the daughter of the landowner in Doohoma, north Mayo, just four months earlier.
He is a frequent visitor to the home with his partner Ms Flynn, with whom he has two children.
She is currently facing bankruptcy proceedings taken by RTE over her failure to pay almost €3m in legal costs from her failed libel case.
The holiday home is located in an area which is now the subject of planning restrictions due to its scenic beauty.
It is just 200 metres from a sandy beach and has uninterrupted views of Tullaghan Bay and Achill Island.
Although the planning climate was much looser in Mayo in 1997, it would still have been extremely difficult to secure a site in one of the most scenic parts of the village.
However, the woman who made the planning permission application was Breege Cooney, a single woman living in a council house in Doohoma.
Her late father John owned the site at the time. And her connection to the land meant her planning application was almost guaranteed to succeed.
An investigation by the Irish Independent has revealed the application was made on her behalf by Castlebar-based planning agent John Hamrock, who has made more than a dozen planning applications for Mr Gaughan.
Mr Hamrock was unavailable for comment last night.
Ms Cooney confirmed to the Irish Independent that she had never lived in the house.
She said she allowed her name to be used on the planning application for the site as part of an arrangement between herself and Mr Gaughan.
But she would not reveal any further details.
"What happened between me and Tony was between ourselves," she said.
Ms Cooney and her family had been living in a run-down council house but, in 1998, Mayo council built a new bungalow for them.
The Irish Independent contacted Mr Gaughan, who denied that he had made any arrangement with Ms Cooney.
He also denied that he had asked her to seek planning permission for a house on the site.
Mr Gaughan said he had bought the site from Ms Cooney's father John (now deceased) after the planning permission had been granted, and that all his actions had been "100pc legit".
When asked if the involvement of Mr Hamrock in the planning application showed a connection to him, Mr Gaughan said the agent carried out lots of planning applications for people all over the North Mayo area.
Mayo county council insisted Mr Gaughan had not broken any planning laws.
"It's not an issue for us, whatever happened before or after the planning permission was given," a spokesman said. He rejected claims the council was "going easy" on Mr Gaughan.
Mr Gaughan and Ms Flynn's main residence is a mansion outside Castlebar, which has been dubbed 'Beverley Hills' by locals.
Ms Flynn did not return a call seeking comment about the revelations.
Michael Brennan
Irish Independent
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Locals risk lives crossing road over poor planning
BROKEN promises and years of poor planning are foremost in the minds of voters in rural north Cork.
At Rathduff every morning, the school run has become the most stressful job of the day.
The village is cut in half by the main Cork to Mallow Road where the speed signs require cars to slow to 60kmph but drivers rarely oblige.
Parents have devised tactics to cross between the cars to drop their children to the secondary school buses.
Some do not feel comfortable driving across the stream of traffic and instead watch their children cross by foot instead.
Pat Moynihan owns a shop at the junction and watches cars queuing to cross the main road.
“From 7am until after nine, there are cars just flying along the main road and you see the line of cars here waiting to get across. It is crazy, there are more houses planned on the other side of the road, but I don’t know how they are going to cross as well,” he said.
Those queuing up at Rathduff live along the borders of the Cork North Central, Cork East and Cork North West constituencies.
The village was promised €250,000 for a roundabout at the junction and detailed designs were distributed.
But after hopes rose they were dashed by the recent intervention of the National Roads Authority. It has decided to prioritise planning for a motorway between Limerick and Cork and to shelve plans for improvements to the junction.
Local people have been told the original construction grant will now be spent on a feasibility study for what was already planned. They were told it was not a political decision but this argument is not winning supporters ahead of General Election.
Mary O’Keefe-Jones prefers to drive the long route to Blarney rather than run the gauntlet of the N20.
She works in the Rathduff before-and-after school service, used mainly by parents commuting to Cork city during the day.
Outside the school, the inadequate rural road network is in evidence again. A lack of parking spaces along the single-lane road means buses and cars are fighting for spots when they converge to drop children off.
Ms O’Keefe-Jones’s children are among those who have to leave school 10 minutes early every evening so their buses can pull away before the parents arrive.
The 170 new houses overlooking the school promise more problems with inadequate water, sewerage and roads remaining untouched despite the investment in housing.
‘The cars just fly past’
RATHDUFF woman Liz O’Sullivan rises well in advance of the 8am school bus which collects two of her children on the main Mallow to Cork Road.
She said she takes her life in her hands every morning, darting between gaps in the rush-hour traffic which streams through the middle of the village.
“There is nothing there to help us get out and the cars just fly past.”
At 9am at Rathduff National School, parents of 165 children and two buses converge on 15 parking spaces. Sitting on a single-lane country road, the drop-off point is chaotic with cars stopping, manoeuvring on a sixpence.
Ms O’Sullivan is among those campaigning for better infrastructure for years and watched in frustration as more than 170 houses were built overlooking the school without any investment to ease congestion.
Ms O’Sullivan says she was once told nothing will be done because there have not been “enough fatalities” and is worried what it will take before the network is improved.
Irish Examiner
At Rathduff every morning, the school run has become the most stressful job of the day.
The village is cut in half by the main Cork to Mallow Road where the speed signs require cars to slow to 60kmph but drivers rarely oblige.
Parents have devised tactics to cross between the cars to drop their children to the secondary school buses.
Some do not feel comfortable driving across the stream of traffic and instead watch their children cross by foot instead.
Pat Moynihan owns a shop at the junction and watches cars queuing to cross the main road.
“From 7am until after nine, there are cars just flying along the main road and you see the line of cars here waiting to get across. It is crazy, there are more houses planned on the other side of the road, but I don’t know how they are going to cross as well,” he said.
Those queuing up at Rathduff live along the borders of the Cork North Central, Cork East and Cork North West constituencies.
The village was promised €250,000 for a roundabout at the junction and detailed designs were distributed.
But after hopes rose they were dashed by the recent intervention of the National Roads Authority. It has decided to prioritise planning for a motorway between Limerick and Cork and to shelve plans for improvements to the junction.
Local people have been told the original construction grant will now be spent on a feasibility study for what was already planned. They were told it was not a political decision but this argument is not winning supporters ahead of General Election.
Mary O’Keefe-Jones prefers to drive the long route to Blarney rather than run the gauntlet of the N20.
She works in the Rathduff before-and-after school service, used mainly by parents commuting to Cork city during the day.
Outside the school, the inadequate rural road network is in evidence again. A lack of parking spaces along the single-lane road means buses and cars are fighting for spots when they converge to drop children off.
Ms O’Keefe-Jones’s children are among those who have to leave school 10 minutes early every evening so their buses can pull away before the parents arrive.
The 170 new houses overlooking the school promise more problems with inadequate water, sewerage and roads remaining untouched despite the investment in housing.
‘The cars just fly past’
RATHDUFF woman Liz O’Sullivan rises well in advance of the 8am school bus which collects two of her children on the main Mallow to Cork Road.
She said she takes her life in her hands every morning, darting between gaps in the rush-hour traffic which streams through the middle of the village.
“There is nothing there to help us get out and the cars just fly past.”
At 9am at Rathduff National School, parents of 165 children and two buses converge on 15 parking spaces. Sitting on a single-lane country road, the drop-off point is chaotic with cars stopping, manoeuvring on a sixpence.
Ms O’Sullivan is among those campaigning for better infrastructure for years and watched in frustration as more than 170 houses were built overlooking the school without any investment to ease congestion.
Ms O’Sullivan says she was once told nothing will be done because there have not been “enough fatalities” and is worried what it will take before the network is improved.
Irish Examiner
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
Landowner rights 'can't be ignored'
THE rights of landowners cannot be ignored just to give walkers greater access to the countryside, said Minister Eamon O Cuiv.
With regard to the debate around charging for entry to land, the minister told Green Party TD Dan Boyle there was a charge for entry to the zoo and to golf courses which were owned by somebody.
The best way forward was through a community-based approach, he said.
Irish Independent
With regard to the debate around charging for entry to land, the minister told Green Party TD Dan Boyle there was a charge for entry to the zoo and to golf courses which were owned by somebody.
The best way forward was through a community-based approach, he said.
Irish Independent
Thursday, 4 January 2007
Criticism of planners and An Taisce - same old, same old ...
The Southern Star has this story:
Growing bitterness about the way planning applications are allowed and disallowed in Beara has become a major topic in the area, with much criticism of the county planners and An Taisce. At a meeting of the Cork County Council planners were attacked for not granting more permissions. for houses in rural areas to compensate for the restrictions imposed in the controversial three-mile limit in the 1996 County Development Plan. Councillors want to see more preference given to local people who apply to put up houses in areas where building it as present severely restricted to preserve scenes of natural beauty. Locals believe that tight regulations are preventing people who want to stay in the area from building the houses they need and they think local people should be able to share the benefits of rising land values. They are also keen to see more building going on to create jobs in of high unemployment.
Councillors of all parties, particularly those representing Beara want planning rules relaxed to benefit local people rather than outsiders, including outsiders who are building holiday homes on sites which have been granted planning permission for dwellings. Resentment often arises because outsiders have the money to buy sites where there is planning permission which local people cannot afford.
Locals are also concerned about the apparent ease which people from outside the area have been receiving planning permission while local people are refused. A recent case is one near Castletownbere where a young local fisherman who applied for planning permission to build a house on his own land, was refused four times. The reason given by the local engineer was that the exit would be on to the main Castletownbere/Allihies Road, while a short distance away outsiders were granted planning permission to build second and holiday homes only a few yards from the same road.
Locals are also highly critical of An Taisce and say that they are faceless people acting against local interests.
Growing bitterness about the way planning applications are allowed and disallowed in Beara has become a major topic in the area, with much criticism of the county planners and An Taisce. At a meeting of the Cork County Council planners were attacked for not granting more permissions. for houses in rural areas to compensate for the restrictions imposed in the controversial three-mile limit in the 1996 County Development Plan. Councillors want to see more preference given to local people who apply to put up houses in areas where building it as present severely restricted to preserve scenes of natural beauty. Locals believe that tight regulations are preventing people who want to stay in the area from building the houses they need and they think local people should be able to share the benefits of rising land values. They are also keen to see more building going on to create jobs in of high unemployment.
Councillors of all parties, particularly those representing Beara want planning rules relaxed to benefit local people rather than outsiders, including outsiders who are building holiday homes on sites which have been granted planning permission for dwellings. Resentment often arises because outsiders have the money to buy sites where there is planning permission which local people cannot afford.
Locals are also concerned about the apparent ease which people from outside the area have been receiving planning permission while local people are refused. A recent case is one near Castletownbere where a young local fisherman who applied for planning permission to build a house on his own land, was refused four times. The reason given by the local engineer was that the exit would be on to the main Castletownbere/Allihies Road, while a short distance away outsiders were granted planning permission to build second and holiday homes only a few yards from the same road.
Locals are also highly critical of An Taisce and say that they are faceless people acting against local interests.
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
New rural lobby group set to field candidates in election
From Irish Examiner:
A NEW alliance unhappy that the Government is ignoring the views of rural Ireland is looking to stand candidates at next summer’s election.
The Rural Ireland Alliance was established in West Cork earlier this month following the Government’s decision to ban drift-net fishing for salmon.
One of its five founders, John Nolan, is a former chair of the Fianna Fáil cumann in Castletownbere.
Explaining his reasons for leaving Fianna Fáil yesterday, he said: “I felt that rural Ireland and issues that affect people in rural Ireland — especially in relation to our traditional jobs like fishing, farming and tourism — we’re no longer getting listened to.
“Politicians have no problem at election time coming round and promising the sun, moon and stars. But we’ve been quite disappointed the way our fishing, one of the traditional industries, has been treated. [It’s] not only just fishing: also farming. In Castletownbere co-op alone, we lost 200 jobs in the last five years.”
The alliance, which had its first public meeting on December 6, would seek to represent disaffected fisherman, farmers, publicans and other members of the rural community. The goal would be to become a political party over time, Mr Nolan explained.
“We had a public meeting in Dunmanway two weeks ago and there were over 120 people present [from] all aspects of life in West Cork. Now, we would
hope that it would lead to an actual new party. We’re beginners; there’s no question about that. But what we wanted to look at was the possibility of setting up a lobby group. And it was almost a unanimous decision that we could look actually to go on the election trail.”
To that end, the alliance would seek to nominate a candidate to run in the Cork South West constituency — which takes in most of West Cork — in the coming months.
The hope is that other disaffected rural communities would then follow suit, Mr Nolan said.
The alliance will have its next public meeting on January 10, again in Dunmanway.
Explaining the alliance’s manifesto, Mr Nolan said: “I don’t want to be tied up to just the drift-net issue, because we don’t think that putting up a candidate will get drift-netting back. We just feel that successive governments have stopped listening to rural Ireland. We still have emigration from rural Ireland, but it’s emigration now to Cork and emigration to Dublin.”
A NEW alliance unhappy that the Government is ignoring the views of rural Ireland is looking to stand candidates at next summer’s election.
The Rural Ireland Alliance was established in West Cork earlier this month following the Government’s decision to ban drift-net fishing for salmon.
One of its five founders, John Nolan, is a former chair of the Fianna Fáil cumann in Castletownbere.
Explaining his reasons for leaving Fianna Fáil yesterday, he said: “I felt that rural Ireland and issues that affect people in rural Ireland — especially in relation to our traditional jobs like fishing, farming and tourism — we’re no longer getting listened to.
“Politicians have no problem at election time coming round and promising the sun, moon and stars. But we’ve been quite disappointed the way our fishing, one of the traditional industries, has been treated. [It’s] not only just fishing: also farming. In Castletownbere co-op alone, we lost 200 jobs in the last five years.”
The alliance, which had its first public meeting on December 6, would seek to represent disaffected fisherman, farmers, publicans and other members of the rural community. The goal would be to become a political party over time, Mr Nolan explained.
“We had a public meeting in Dunmanway two weeks ago and there were over 120 people present [from] all aspects of life in West Cork. Now, we would
hope that it would lead to an actual new party. We’re beginners; there’s no question about that. But what we wanted to look at was the possibility of setting up a lobby group. And it was almost a unanimous decision that we could look actually to go on the election trail.”
To that end, the alliance would seek to nominate a candidate to run in the Cork South West constituency — which takes in most of West Cork — in the coming months.
The hope is that other disaffected rural communities would then follow suit, Mr Nolan said.
The alliance will have its next public meeting on January 10, again in Dunmanway.
Explaining the alliance’s manifesto, Mr Nolan said: “I don’t want to be tied up to just the drift-net issue, because we don’t think that putting up a candidate will get drift-netting back. We just feel that successive governments have stopped listening to rural Ireland. We still have emigration from rural Ireland, but it’s emigration now to Cork and emigration to Dublin.”
Wednesday, 29 November 2006
Rural planning - Irish Rural Dwellers' Association
Useful Article by Liamy McNally
Planning for slick rural dwellers
There is nothing worse than smart ass city slickers who pride themselves in taking a swipe at people from outside the Pale. Apart from the obvious and most welcome lesson that was meted out to some of our city brethren on the hallowed grounds of Croke Park recently, city slickers often adopt a superior attitude towards those of us from outside the metropolitan 50 kilometres per hour speed limit. It is even more nauseating when the slickers meet on-line and hide behind the skirts of discussion fora to launch verbal scuds on people outside the capital. These egg-in-the-mouth scripts smack of the West Brit nonsense so familiar to a certain breed of misnamed professional.
Check out the discussion board of archiseek.com Irish website relating to the Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association. The pages are graced with the repulsive scripts that belong to a colonial past, long dead but obviously, still hankered after by a few withered brains masquerading as architectural intellects. The reason for the architectural verbal outrage stemmed from a query for a contact number for the Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association.
The IRDA
The Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association was set up in 2002 with national membership and is based in Co Clare. Its main aim is: “To unite all rural dwellers and people of goodwill towards rural Ireland and in the context of peaceful, multi-cultural co-existence in the common cause of ensuring, by legal and constitutional means, the growth and maintenance of a vibrant, populated countryside in the traditional Irish forms of baile fearann or dispersed village, sráid bhaile or street village and the clachán or nucleated clustered village.”
The IRDA is a voluntary, unfunded organisation that depends on the €20 annual subscription of its members to carry out its work. It was set up to tackle the unseemly and daft approaches to rural planning adopted by planning authorities. Regardless of 800 years of domination by outside forces it is still impossible for many Irish people to live in their own area because of the colonial interpretations adopted by many planners.
A planning ‘need’
Seeking planning permission is blocked first of all by the ‘need’ question. One must establish a need to build in an area. It is no longer enough to have a family history in an area, you must also establish a need to satisfy some off-the-wall loopy interpretation of planning laws that were drawn up to assist people not shackle them. In the Jewish times of Jesus, laws replaced the Law. Today, the laws are being used to deter, prevent and refuse access to rural areas to those people whose hearts are throbbing with the beat of the countryside. They want us to live in cities and towns. The cry of ‘To hell or to Connacht’ has been replaced by those awful terms, ‘further information requested’ or ‘planning permission refused.’ What is becoming of our country when diktats are promulgated by people using half-baked ideas? Minister Dick Roche states that his Rural Planning Guidelines are there to benefit people from rural areas.
“There is now a presumption in favour of one-off houses…,” he stated at the launch. It is a pity that planners throughout the country are not aware of the Minister’s intentions. The IRDA is standing up against the latest form of bullying – denying people access to live where they want in rural areas.
The IRDA is not advocating a free for all in planning matters. It is simply advocating a sensible approach. There have been calls for ‘proofing’ to take place in government policies to ensure that rural areas are not discriminated against; the proofing that is required is in the planning process. The country once played host to over eight million people. They did not live between blades of grass or in cracks in stone walls. They lived in homes.
Rural cleansing
What is happening across the Irish countryside is akin to an ethnic cleansing of rural life. People who operate under the guise of ‘planners’ in this country do not even have to have an Irish qualification. The acceptable norm of being a ‘qualified planner’ in Ireland - those who make recommendations to grant or refuse our planning applications – refers to an international accreditation by the Royal Town Planning Institute (London) or similar, according to the IRDA. “These qualifications involve no recognition whatsoever of the special position of the island nation of Ireland in respect of our history, culture, traditions, 5,000-year-old rural settlement patterns or the many subtleties and nuances that make our country and our Irish race unique. Under Departmental regulations, non-national planners are not obliged to take courses whatsoever in relation to the ‘Irish’ dimension before taking up employment in this country.”
The planners irony does not stop there. When the Minister introduced the regulations one would have expected the planners of the country to rejoice that the person local authority planners are deemed to serve under had made an important determination in matters so dear to people of the country. Instead, the Irish Planning Institute opposed Government policy on rural housing! On the one hand, the Government attempted to deal with an explosive issue in a sensitive manner, yet those deemed with a duty of care to carry out the policy ‘mutinied’. Ah sure it is a great country! It could only happen here. The tail wags the dog and gets away with it!
The IRDA claims that the current President of the Irish Planning Institute, Mr Hank van der Kamp, “recently suggested we need a complete ban on rural housing similar to the one imposed on Northern Ireland by a British Minister in 2006. In these circumstances, where the professional organisation representing planners in the country is expressing views that are in direct opposition to Government policy on rural housing, it is nonsensical to suppose that individual IPI members do not reflect this anti-rural housing bias when assessing individual applications. The citizens’ rights to fair and objective treatment from these public servants is a sick joke.”
The IRDA goes on to claim that “the overwhelming ethos, background and qualifications of planners are towards urbanisation. They have no problem pursuing this ideology under Irish planning law.”
Taking control
Regardless of the Minister’s good intentions on rural planning laws, they cannot work when planners are unaccountable. Planners can argue that they only make recommendations rather than planning decisions, which are the remit of the relevant Town or County Manager, but the reality is that planners and/or Town and County Managers remain unaccountable to the people of the country. They are neither elected nor ever have to seek re-election. It is time that respective Town or County Managers took control in planning matters in their respective domains. Obviously, the history of the recommendations from certain planners is not a history to cherish in this country. Actions speak louder than words.
The IRDA is taking action, even to the point of meeting and preparing and submitting a joint proposal with the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) to Minister Dick Roche for the introduction of a national Planning Monitoring Forum. The proposal was rejected by the Minister! Was the Minister afraid that these architects subscribed to archiseek.com!
Planning for slick rural dwellers
There is nothing worse than smart ass city slickers who pride themselves in taking a swipe at people from outside the Pale. Apart from the obvious and most welcome lesson that was meted out to some of our city brethren on the hallowed grounds of Croke Park recently, city slickers often adopt a superior attitude towards those of us from outside the metropolitan 50 kilometres per hour speed limit. It is even more nauseating when the slickers meet on-line and hide behind the skirts of discussion fora to launch verbal scuds on people outside the capital. These egg-in-the-mouth scripts smack of the West Brit nonsense so familiar to a certain breed of misnamed professional.Check out the discussion board of archiseek.com Irish website relating to the Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association. The pages are graced with the repulsive scripts that belong to a colonial past, long dead but obviously, still hankered after by a few withered brains masquerading as architectural intellects. The reason for the architectural verbal outrage stemmed from a query for a contact number for the Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association.
The IRDA
The Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association was set up in 2002 with national membership and is based in Co Clare. Its main aim is: “To unite all rural dwellers and people of goodwill towards rural Ireland and in the context of peaceful, multi-cultural co-existence in the common cause of ensuring, by legal and constitutional means, the growth and maintenance of a vibrant, populated countryside in the traditional Irish forms of baile fearann or dispersed village, sráid bhaile or street village and the clachán or nucleated clustered village.”
The IRDA is a voluntary, unfunded organisation that depends on the €20 annual subscription of its members to carry out its work. It was set up to tackle the unseemly and daft approaches to rural planning adopted by planning authorities. Regardless of 800 years of domination by outside forces it is still impossible for many Irish people to live in their own area because of the colonial interpretations adopted by many planners.
A planning ‘need’
Seeking planning permission is blocked first of all by the ‘need’ question. One must establish a need to build in an area. It is no longer enough to have a family history in an area, you must also establish a need to satisfy some off-the-wall loopy interpretation of planning laws that were drawn up to assist people not shackle them. In the Jewish times of Jesus, laws replaced the Law. Today, the laws are being used to deter, prevent and refuse access to rural areas to those people whose hearts are throbbing with the beat of the countryside. They want us to live in cities and towns. The cry of ‘To hell or to Connacht’ has been replaced by those awful terms, ‘further information requested’ or ‘planning permission refused.’ What is becoming of our country when diktats are promulgated by people using half-baked ideas? Minister Dick Roche states that his Rural Planning Guidelines are there to benefit people from rural areas.
“There is now a presumption in favour of one-off houses…,” he stated at the launch. It is a pity that planners throughout the country are not aware of the Minister’s intentions. The IRDA is standing up against the latest form of bullying – denying people access to live where they want in rural areas.
The IRDA is not advocating a free for all in planning matters. It is simply advocating a sensible approach. There have been calls for ‘proofing’ to take place in government policies to ensure that rural areas are not discriminated against; the proofing that is required is in the planning process. The country once played host to over eight million people. They did not live between blades of grass or in cracks in stone walls. They lived in homes.
Rural cleansing
What is happening across the Irish countryside is akin to an ethnic cleansing of rural life. People who operate under the guise of ‘planners’ in this country do not even have to have an Irish qualification. The acceptable norm of being a ‘qualified planner’ in Ireland - those who make recommendations to grant or refuse our planning applications – refers to an international accreditation by the Royal Town Planning Institute (London) or similar, according to the IRDA. “These qualifications involve no recognition whatsoever of the special position of the island nation of Ireland in respect of our history, culture, traditions, 5,000-year-old rural settlement patterns or the many subtleties and nuances that make our country and our Irish race unique. Under Departmental regulations, non-national planners are not obliged to take courses whatsoever in relation to the ‘Irish’ dimension before taking up employment in this country.”
The planners irony does not stop there. When the Minister introduced the regulations one would have expected the planners of the country to rejoice that the person local authority planners are deemed to serve under had made an important determination in matters so dear to people of the country. Instead, the Irish Planning Institute opposed Government policy on rural housing! On the one hand, the Government attempted to deal with an explosive issue in a sensitive manner, yet those deemed with a duty of care to carry out the policy ‘mutinied’. Ah sure it is a great country! It could only happen here. The tail wags the dog and gets away with it!
The IRDA claims that the current President of the Irish Planning Institute, Mr Hank van der Kamp, “recently suggested we need a complete ban on rural housing similar to the one imposed on Northern Ireland by a British Minister in 2006. In these circumstances, where the professional organisation representing planners in the country is expressing views that are in direct opposition to Government policy on rural housing, it is nonsensical to suppose that individual IPI members do not reflect this anti-rural housing bias when assessing individual applications. The citizens’ rights to fair and objective treatment from these public servants is a sick joke.”
The IRDA goes on to claim that “the overwhelming ethos, background and qualifications of planners are towards urbanisation. They have no problem pursuing this ideology under Irish planning law.”
Taking control
Regardless of the Minister’s good intentions on rural planning laws, they cannot work when planners are unaccountable. Planners can argue that they only make recommendations rather than planning decisions, which are the remit of the relevant Town or County Manager, but the reality is that planners and/or Town and County Managers remain unaccountable to the people of the country. They are neither elected nor ever have to seek re-election. It is time that respective Town or County Managers took control in planning matters in their respective domains. Obviously, the history of the recommendations from certain planners is not a history to cherish in this country. Actions speak louder than words.
The IRDA is taking action, even to the point of meeting and preparing and submitting a joint proposal with the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) to Minister Dick Roche for the introduction of a national Planning Monitoring Forum. The proposal was rejected by the Minister! Was the Minister afraid that these architects subscribed to archiseek.com!
The Enliven Report
The ENLIVEN Report
Energy Networks Linking Innovation in Villages in Europe Now
The ENLIVEN project is a cross sector partnership led by Irish Rural Link. Partners are: Offaly County Council; Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability; Dundalk Institute of Technology; Methanogen; EOS Architects; Martin Langton, Developer; Pauric Davis and Associates, Engineers; Michael Layden, Community Energy Consultant; Sean Riordan, Developer.
Executive Summary
Historically, communities developed in places where resources were available. Today however, many rural communities are in decline because the use of fossil fuels has devalued their renewable energy sources, made the growing of many non-food crops irrelevant, and exposed their food products to price competition from places where land is more abundant.
This project is based on the premise that the tide may be about to turn. Restrictions on the use of fossil fuel in response to the threat of climate change and because of oil and gas depletion are about to make energy supplies scarcer and more costly. Handled correctly, this could create the circumstances in which rural communities will again be able to grow by developing their local resources, particularly those of energy.
The project focuses on what that 'correct handling' involves and breaks a lot of new ground. It takes two small neighbouring communities in rural Ireland, chosen only because largish housing and other construction projects were being planned, and assesses their renewable energy potential. It then looks at how that potential can be realised in ways that would benefit everyone living in the communities at present and those who might move there in the future.
It will establish the prototype of a model process to develop the renewable energy resources and link them to energy networks serving rural villages. The pilot projects in the two villages, Cadamstown and Ballyboy, will be developed with private sector partners projects to test the technical and financial aspects of the model. Later phases will demonstrate a new planning and development model, a partnership between the local authority, villagers, development agencies and private consultants. The project involves:
- The construction of the first electrical minigrid supply systems in Ireland for the past seventy years.
- The construction of the first district heating systems for a mixed development of private housing, visitor and recreational and commercial buildings anywhere in Ireland.
- The erection of 2 wind turbines, one near each village, a wood-chip-fired CHP plant in one village and a biogas digester plus a biogas-fired CHP plant in the other in the First Phase.
- The efficient management of these plants and the supply and sale of their heat and electricity output by Energy Supply Companies (ESCo).
- The development of metering systems which allow customers to buy wind generated electricity whenever a surplus of it is available at little more than the opportunity cost of selling it into the grid.
- The establishment of a pool of electrically-powered vehicles for use by the village businesses, residents and visitors.
- The establishment of a community asset management company in each village to own and control the common non-energy assets created by the project.
- The large-scale use of construction materials sourced from the local area in the construction of highly energy efficient buildings.
- Research into ways of storing energy for convenient use such as small-scale hydro - a demonstration project will be investigated for Cadamstown - and the newest generation of batteries called flow batteries.
- Research into ways in which savings of Co2 can be passed back to the communities which made them through green certificates, carbon emission permits, quotas or other grant or tax measures.
- Research into ways in which increases in property-values due to the activities of the local authorities, community asset management companies and energy services companies can be better captured for those who created them.
- Research into growing and harvesting methods for new non-food crops for construction such as hemp and for bio fuels such as rapeseed.
- Funding the National Agreement Certification process for innovative ecological building construction systems to support its adoption anywhere in Ireland for social housing, first time buyers and in rural tax incentive areas.
- The drawing up in Phase 2, in conjunction with the local county council and village residents, of Framework Plans for a further eight villages in addition to the Phase 1 projects.
- The extension by the county council of the energy minigrids, plus the provision of the roads, water, and sewage systems under an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative described under the Framework Plan. The county council would recover the cost of this work under the provisions of Section 49 of the Planning Act. This is a novel way of handling village development.
- The dissemination of this experience, through a dedicated Local Energy Advisory Agency and a Village Framework Plan Advisory Agency supported by a revolving fund, as a model for rural development.
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