Council’s plan trying to ‘strip people of right to live in the countryside’

A candidate for Cork County Council has warned that the local authority’s draft county development plan is seeking to "strip people of the right to live in the countryside".

According to Midleton-based candidate Wayne Halloran, the draft blueprint for the development of the county sets out that only those who work on the land should get planning permission to live in rural areas.

“As outlined on pages 60 and 61 of this document, planning permission will only be granted to those working on the land, those who have lived there for more than seven years, or those who have emigrated for over seven years and now want to return home to take care of elderly parents,” he said.