Lobby group to give voice to the people on planning

A NATIONAL group is to be set up to give ordinary people a voice in planning affairs.

It will target local authorities who do not enforce planning laws and help people to object to unsuitable developments.

The group will select its formal name at a public meeting in Kingsland, Boyle, Co Roscommon, on August 25.

Spokeswoman Catherine Ansbro said: “We will address planning issues which affect people in rural and urban areas. Problems about lack of planning information and access are equally true in urban and rural areas.”

She said an enormous range of problems had been aired at the group’s first meeting last month. “The range of queries was so deep and the level of frustration so great that we decided we had to do something to move it forward.”

Issues included:

An elderly farmer in Connacht whose right of way for his cattle was being taken away by a new development.

A local authority in Leinster which ignored the illegal dumping of construction sub-soil, despite repeated complaints.

A landowner in Connacht who secured planning permission for seven houses on condition they were sold to local people. Two years later, all of the houses were owned by people from outside the area.

The group plans to set up a website and a helpline to provide an information resource for people. Ms Ansbro said this would help people who were struggling to deal with planning issues on their own. “Ordinary people don’t have the resources to take legal action against a local authority to get them to enforce the law. Unless you’re independently wealthy, there’s nothing you can do. It makes a laughing stock of the whole concept of planning.”

The issue of one-off-housing led to the formation of another lobby group last year, the Irish Rural Dwellers Organisation.

In March, Environment Minister Martin Cullen introduced guidelines aimed at reducing the overturning of planning permission for one-off housing.

The new group is in favour of rural housing which is built for local people, but hostile to developments built without proper planning permission.