Planners let towns ‘wither on the vine’, says An Taisce

Rural towns and villages are being allowed to “wither on the vine”, with An Taisce claiming an overhaul of planning and building policies are needed to preserve country life.

In a report issued ahead of work on the successor to the Government’s National Spatial Strategy 2002-2020, the heritage group said planning policies had “completely failed to curb the piecemeal suburbanisation of the Irish countryside”.

This was contributing towards outward migration and a “thin spread of population [that] has led to the slow economic and demographic demise of large parts of rural Ireland”, it said.