Why do they want to turn our village into a city dormitory?
All over this country the wishes of local communities seem to be completely disregarded, all in the name of progress.
I live close to the village of Bartlemy - described in the draft local area plan (January, 2005) as “a remote hilltop village.”
In the last county development plan (1996/97) a development boundary was put in place around the crossroads that is Bartlemy village and land within this boundary was deemed suitable for housing development.
Since 1997 a total of five houses - three private and two local authority - have been built within this boundary.
In the draft local area plan of January 2005 the same development boundary was again proposed - there are approximately 30 acres of zoned land within it.
As I have stated, no major housing development took place during the lifetime of the last plan mainly because of the absence of a main sewer.
A sewerage system for Bartlemy was first mooted in 1948 and now it seems that it will go ahead in the next year or so.
So we have 30 acres of land zoned for housing where no development has taken place. Now, in June 2005, I am amazed to discover that Cork county council are proposing to extend the development boundary and zone more land for housing in Bartlemy.
This is absolutely crazy.
In April of this year and independent environmental report on Bartlemy stated (section 7): “Bartlemy is a very attractive small village that hopefully will be able to keep its character in the future. There is always the danger that medium/large scale housing development in the village in the future may damage this quality.”
At present there are 25 houses in the Bartlemy village area. In recent weeks locals have heard of proposals to build an additional 60 to 160 houses in the village at a density of from 6 to 10 per acre.
Surely any potential development should take into account “the rural ethos of the village” (2005 Cork county council draft area plan for Bartlemy).
Putting housing of a medium to high density into a village like Bartlemy is totally unacceptable, a recipe for disaster and it defies logic. Of course development in the village is welcome, but it must be sustainable and not turn a little village into a small dormitory town for Cork city.
We are welcoming folk in Bartlemy. Already in our community of less than 1,000 we have people from 14 Irish counties and six different countries.
Since 1948 Bartlemy has campaigned for a sewerage scheme which would ensure that people could build houses in or around the village. The county council never had the money to do the job. Isn’t it now ironic if the pressure from, and cash of, builders and developers will be responsible for providing services which could ruin Bartlemy?
Have the people who currently live in Bartlemy any rights? All the talk is of “sustainable development.” What does that mean?
Build houses at high density, pack ’em in, don’t worry about sub-standard approach roads, water, no post office, limited school space, quality of life.
By all means let’s have in-fill housing and new housing but on a modest scale in keeping with the present size of the village.
Let’s not make the people of Bartlemy strangers in their own land.
John Arnold
Garryantaggart
Bartlemy
Co Cork
