Planning laws - Bypass farce of planning legislation

With the daily tribunal disclosures, it should hardly come as a surprise to people that our planning laws are developing into a farce.

John O’Connor, chairman of An Bord Pleanála, warned at the launch of the board’s annual report for 2005 that billions of euro have been squandered on building bypasses around towns.

New retail parks, industrial estates, hotels and housing developments have been allowed to develop along the bypasses, so that bypasses are needed for the bypasses. Developers have naturally targeted parcels of land near roundabouts along the new bypasses, and Mr O’Connor was particularly critical of local authorities for facilitating the trend.