Too many one-off homes built in Kerry, planning watchdog says

Mall Street, Tralee. The town should see a population growth of 30% by 2040, under national guidelines. Picture: Domnick Walsh

The State’s planning watchdog has suggested that excessive levels of new homes built in Co Kerry in the past five years were one-off houses in rural areas.

The Office of the Planning Regulator has expressed concern to Kerry County Council up to 59% of all new dwellings constructed between 2015 and 2020 were located in open countryside outside of any villages or towns.

The regulator said the growth in one-off housing in Kerry had come at the same time as the majority of the larger towns in Kerry, apart from Tralee and Killarney, had experienced a decline in population “with evident long-term implications for their viability”.

They include Cahersiveen, Castleisland, Dingle, Kenmare, Killorglin and Listowel.

The regulator has raised the issue with Kerry County Council as the local authority prepares to develop the Kerry County Development Plan 2022-2028.

OPR say new plans will rejuvenate smaller towns in Kerry

The OPR said the next county development plan was “a timely opportunity” to provide for “implementable measures to turn around the trend”.

It said the plan could be used to rejuvenate smaller towns and villages in Kerry “where often the only significant level of new housing provision is from the social housing sector.” The OPR said the key function of the new plan’s core strategy was to focus on a preferred approach to both the spatial pattern and quality of housing delivering over the lifetime of the plan.

It said the policy objectives contained in the National Planning Framework and the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy should determine to a large extent the council’s approach to the content and detail of the plan. That includes a projected population growth in excess of 30% in Tralee and Killarney by 2040.