Protest targets restrictive planning

ABOUT 60 people yesterday mounted a protest outside a Kerry County Council meeting in Tralee, against what they claimed were over-restrictive planning policies in rural areas.

Some of those taking part in the Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association (IRDA) protest said landowners were being planned out of existence, with IRDA founder Jim Connolly saying rural dwellers were suffering from British ideology.

“When we introduced planning laws in 1963, we invited British rule and ideas back into this country,” he said.

Farmers, who said they wanted to be able to sell sites to gain income, some rural businessmen and at least one builder were among the protesters.

A man in a white mask attracted attention. He said the mask was a sign of his experience with “faceless” planners and later identified himself as Brian O’Connor, 44, a father-of-five, originally from Ballymacelligott.

At Tralee Court last month, he pleaded guilty to assaulting two senior planners in their Kerry County Council offices in Tralee on April 13, 2007, after his quarry was closed arising from legal proceedings some years previously.

The case was adjourned to December 2009.

Mr O’Connor claimed yesterday that he could not get planning for a house on his land. The O’Connor family now claim the quarry closure means they have to live off the State.

The IRDA yesterday said Mr O’Connor was not part of their organisation.

Caroline Sweeney, a pro-testor from Beaufort, Killarney, said she had been forced to buy a site elsewhere. She had been granted permission for a house on the family’s lakeside land but this had been overturned on appeal.

A bigger attendance had been expected at the protest, but Kerry IRDA secretary Brigid O’Connor said some people ‘didn’t want to show their face’ because they feared it might come against them if they applied for planning permission.

She said people were continuing to experience difficulties in getting planning in rural areas.

“People are being told to live where they work, which is often in urban areas. We don’t think this is right, 2 she said.

Kerry county manager Tom Curran had a meeting last week with IRDA representatives at which several issues were discussed. The council pointed out that more than 80 percent of all planning applications are granted in Kerry.

Senior planning engineer Tom Sheehy yesterday said the council was “doing its best to facilitate people, but couldn’t facilitate everyone”.