Any development must fit into landscape
The recent habit of building one house after the other along the roadside respects no Irish tradition. (This pattern of house-building mushroomed in the early 1960s - a point noted in a 1975 housing report.)
The idea that the 'dispersed village' is the main characteristic of the rural landscape is simply not true. The rural Irish landscape, in the main, is characterised by farm villages surrounded by fields and distant from one another by a mile or two. Small towns and villages are also a vital part of rural Ireland. Unfortunately, formless suburban estates are destroying many of these small towns.
The traditional street structure of our towns and respect for scenery in the countryside has been abandoned in favour of relentless sprawl.
Bad planning has bedeviled this country. Yet our landscape's beauty remains a major economic and social resource. Our politicians' leadership in protecting this resource has been dismal. They have chosen to follow an emotional approach which has seen landowners and developers determine planning policy. It is a fundamental point of planning that different landscapes have a varying capacity to absorb development. At the very least, we should be developing a landscape policy to put this into effect.
A North-South body committed to this objective would be welcome.
Seán Brosnan
Dingle Sustainable Development Group
Strand Street
Dingle
