Wicklow County Council has said that it will not allow the village of Newtownmountkennedy to develop by more than an additional 500 houses when a mains drainage system is installed in the next 18 months.

A number of property developers bought up extensive lands around the village in recent years and submitted planning applications to the council to build more than 2,200 houses. However, a planning consultant hired by Wicklow County Council has advised that strategic planning guidelines would not support anything other than development for local needs in the small north Wicklow village.

Following the story's appearance in the Irish Times, the acting Wicklow county secretary Michael Nicholson, speaking on RTE, said some property developers would see their ambitions frustrated - possibly until 2016 or afterwards.

"The population is expected to increase from 2,500 to 6,000 before the year 2016, so we are talking about 16 years", he said. Referring to the "huge number of planning applications outstanding" Mr Nicholson said that "many of them may not ever be granted".

The applications most likely to be granted, he said, were the ones which carried the greatest benefit to the existing community in terms of social infrastructure.

The new sewage system, which is to be installed over the next 18 months, would allow for the population to double from the present 2,500 to 5,000 houses. "In the short term, there is no way all those planning applications will be granted, it is as simple as that," he added.