Councillors urge planning review to open up housing development

Planning guidelines which restrict housing development in counties around Dublin should be reviewed urgently, some councillors have suggested.

The Strategic Planning Guidelines, a long-term strategy to confine population growth to where it can be serviced by schools, health services, public transport and other essential services, were signed by the managers of seven local authorities in the greater Dublin area in 1999.

They plan a "green-belt hinterland" around Dublin and increases in density in a central metropolitan area to ease long-distance commuting and urban sprawl.

However, some councillors in Kildare, Meath and Wicklow now claim they were not fully informed by council management in 1999 that the effect of the guidelines would be to limit where they could rezone land for development, and they want a review.

Councillors in Meath have already set aside the guidelines by rezoning a green-belt area near Dunboyne. In Co Wicklow, some councillors have called for the guidelines to be effectively overturned. Mr George Jones said members feel the proposed development areas are too concentrated.