Planning indiscipline – Pollution risks highlighted

SO, An Bord Pleanála have confirmed what anyone with even a passing interest in Ireland’s disappearing countryside has known for at least a decade.

Too many one-off rural houses are being built on sites unable to deal with the sewage generated by the occupants. This, inevitably, has dreadful consequences for everyone’s water supplies.

Some 57% of groundwater tested by the EPA is contaminated by sewage and ABP chairman John O’Connor linked this pollution with the estimated 17,000 one-off rural houses built each year. He said the scale of this type of development was unmatched anywhere in Europe. A third of all such cases appealed to ABP were rejected because of potential pollution risks.

Though a lot of people born in the countryside feel that they have an absolute right to build homes on land owned by their family — that their property rights are paramount — the time has come to reconsider the implications of that position.

The report also outlines concerns about developers getting permission for housing schemes in areas without main drainage systems. Instead they rely on private waste water plants. Worries about this are compounded when concerns about who is responsible for the long-term maintenance of these plants are raised.

With praiseworthy clarity the report has warned local authorities that too much land is inappropriately zoned. The report said the ABP would overturn these permissions regardless of whether developers sued for compensation or not. This is a clear shot across the bows of authorities who have been less than scrupulous in considering developers’ proposals. That any penalty will be a liability for the authority might have the desired affect and confine development to suitable areas.

In a further criticism of local authorities ABP also said that each authority should have a clear policy on high-rise developments.

Anyone who remains in doubt about the need to observe a sensible planning discipline should consider the people of Galway, some of whom are still boiling drinking water because of pollution caused by poor control of unsuitable developments.