Are planning guidelines just more of the same?
I was left thinking where have I seen this before. Check your county development plan to find the answer.
Having read the guidelines, I can see the same anxieties for people who want to build on the family holding. Sterilisation clauses, ribbon development, skyline, etc the litany of restrictions is endless.
In relation to holiday home development the guidelines state that development plans should strike a balance between growing demand and the need to channel such development to locations that can best accommodate it.
Planning authorities are advised to give preference to clustering in or around scenic towns and villages.
However, these should not become 'no-go locations' for the native who, in some cases, becomes a trespasser in his or her own country where rights-of-way and fishing rivers are concerned. People who would once have routinely sought permission to construct homes on the family holding had given up hope.
There was a sense that you no longer belonged where once you might have assumed a right to live and die. The draft guidelines are in line with county development plans. Will the proposed policy bring about changes for the better? I have my doubts.
Cllr Noel Collins,
'St Judes,'
Midleton,
Co Cork.
