Donegal 'has worst planning record'

The Celtic Tiger property bubble followed a “catastrophic and systemic failure” where planning was concerned, an An Taisce study has found.

The agency called for the establishment of an Independent Planning Regulator, “free from political pressure.”

The heritage body has also concluded that there is an onus on Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan to “immediately recommence independent inquiries” into seven councils which he suspended in favour of an internal review.

The seven councils concerned are Dublin and Cork city councils and county councils in Carlow, Galway, Cork, Meath and Donegal.

According to the An Taisce study, Donegal, Roscommon, Leitrim, Mayo, Galway county, Cavan, Carlow and Waterford county, in that order, are the worst in Ireland when it comes to planning.

An Taisce’s report said Donegal had about 2,250 hectares of residential land in 2010, enough for a population increase of 180,000 but half of all planning permissions over the past decade were granted on unzoned land.

These trends “were symptomatic of a wider systems failure” in which Donegal, Roscommon, Leitrim and Kerry perform worst, it said.

It also found that “councils which scored poorly generally had the highest rate of residential vacancy, the highest rate of decline and out-migration, the highest levels of unfinished ‘ghost estates’, lower residential property prices and significant ground and surface water pollution.”

The report - State of the Nation: Ireland’s Planning System 2000-2011 - gave four councils a C - South Dublin, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Galway City and Fingal while 13 got a D grade and eight received an E grade.

Five received an F grade, Mayo, Galway County, Cavan, Carlow, and Waterford County, while four councils received an F minus grade including Donegal, Roscommon, Leitrim, and Kerry. . No council achieved an A or B grade.

The legacy of bad planning where those councils were concerned “will affect people living in these areas, and Irish society as a whole, for many generations,” An Taisce added.

The proposed internal Department of the Environment review of seven councils was “scarcely credible given that it perpetuates the hopelessly discredited model of self regulation” whereby the Department of the Environment holds itself as an impartial observer, it said, adding that this was “patent nonsense”.

The Department “pays money to and carries responsibility for local councils” and “has a vested interest in concluding that 'all is fine' in councils,” it said.

An Taisce called for reform of Ireland’s "obsolete" local government structures with its 88 city and county councils, as well as 54 town or borough councils. Instead it favoured approximately 25 local councils, each administering a minimum population of 200,000.

“Smaller councils generally cannot justify the necessary staff to carry out complex planning, including planning,” it said.

A Site Value Tax, as levied in Denmark, should replace the Household Charge, it proposed. "[This] would provide a real incentive for the development that becomes zoned, and will deter overzoning," it said.

The agency concluded that enforcement continues to be the weakest link in Ireland’s already weak planning system. It was therefore “essential” that a new planning regulator be given strong statutory powers to oversee enforcement.

It was also noted in the study that throughout the Celtic Tiger period, An Taisce was “marginalised” for highlighting the far reaching consequences of “promoting development at all costs”.

It said An Taisce made submissions at local level on around three per cent of all planning applications lodged - approximately 30,000 out of 450,000 over a decade. It said that of the approximately 2,000 appeals it lodged over that decade, 80 per cent were upheld by An Bord Plean la.

Eight indicators were used to rank Ireland’s 34 city and county councils in terms of their implementation of planning policies:

1 Overzoning Amount of zoned land as a percentage of population in 2011.

2 Decisions reversed by An Bord Pleanala 2005 – 2010

3 Decisions confirmed by An Bord Pleanala 2005 – 2010

4 Percentage of vacant housing stock 2006 – 2011

5 Change in vacant housing housing stock 2006 2011

6 Water quality. Urban areas with secondary treatment failing to meet EPS standards 2011

7 Percentage of one-off houses permitted as a percentage of all residential planning permissions 2001 – 2011

8 Legal proceedings commenced following non-compliance with enforcement notice 2005 – 2010