County development plan postponement unlikely

Cork’s county manager Martin Riordan has strongly indicated there will be no postponement of a blueprint for future development, although there is already enough land zoned in the county council area for 77,000 new homes.

He was responding to a motion tabled by Cllr Tim Lombard who sought a two-year deferment, due to the stagnant economy, on the adoption of a new County Development Plan.

The Fine Gael councillor argued, under the current plan which expires in Jan 2015, the land already zoned for housing was equivalent to 3,460 soccer pitches.

He said this was more than enough and would be sufficient for several years to come.

His opinions resulted in a spat between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors with the latter claming that the Government was failing in its promise to spark economic activity.

Cllr Andrias Moynihan (FF) said: “It’s one of the council’s main actions to put a new County Development Plan in place [2015-2021].

“There are more than 400,000 unemployed and many more emigrating. We need to keep a focus on generating economic activity.”

His colleague, Beara- based Cllr Danny Crowley, said such plans presented county councillors with an opportunity to refocus on what type of county people would like to see in the future.

Cllr Alan Coleman (FF) said: “It’s about more than just ensuring land for housing estates. It’s also about regenerating towns and tackling depopulation.

“I think Cllr Lombard’s motion is somewhat simplistic and misplaced,” he added.

Cllr Lombard, however, found support from Cllr David Boyle (Ind) who said over-development was one of the reasons for the property crash.

Council planners, it emerged, are already starting to draft the plan.

Under legislation, the council executive is required to go through 15 stages of preparing the plan which includes periods of public consultation.

Mr Riordan said the timeframe for the stages should be relaxed a little and not kept so rigid.

“In our current plan, we have land for 77,000 units of housing. What we are being asked to plan for is 53,000.

“Not every piece of zoned land will come to the market or get infrastructure. So I don’t think we have over-zoned land,” he said. “The economy will recover and Metropolitan Cork will need zoned land.”