Any development must fit into landscape

THE decision of the British government to limit one-off housing in open countryside in Northern Ireland should be welcomed by everyone interested in sustainable development on the island.

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.