The "heated" scenes at a Wicklow County Council meeting on a number of controversial rezonings yesterday and the "misery" experienced by many living in the county highlight the need for a rezoning review board, Fine Gael has said.
Fine Gael's local government spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, said the party's proposal was that a High Court judge would initially head a State-wide rezoning review board to decide on the validity of rezonings within an eight-week timeframe.
"The proposal would not undermine the role of local politicians in the planning process. Instead it would protect them and validate their decisions. It is important to stress that the review board would not have the power to initiate the rezoning process," he said.
"This would introduce a quality control mechanism into decisions on the rezoning of land. The rezoning review board would have a duty to ensure that all land rezonings are only carried out in the public interest, as the existing structures have failed to prevent misuse of the system.
"I am calling on Environment Minister Martin Cullen to do the right thing and take our ideas on board."
At a highly charged meeting yesterday, Wicklow councillors voted to reverse the controversial rezoning of a 172-acre site for use as a film studio and commercial development near Ashford. The site was one of 17 rezoned at an 18-hour council meeting in July.
The landowner had told the council that Ardmore Studios planned to relocate to his site, but the studio subsequently denied this. Issues also emerged later about some of the other rezonings and these were also on the agenda for possible reversal yesterday.
During the meeting, councillors traded insults. The meeting was stopped briefly after Green Party councillor Ms Deirdre De Burca was discovered attempting to record the proceedings, which is not permitted under standing orders.
Ms De Burca said she had been verbally abused at previous meetings and wanted a record of the proceedings.