Greens prepare for local poll

The Green Party has pledged to pursue a "complete overhaul of local government structures" during and after next month's elections.

Unveiling its local election programme yesterday, Mr John Gormley TD said the Greens would challenge the "style and culture of how local government works" to ensure maximum public participation in the process.

In the light of serious questions raised by the tribunals about "the relationship between developers, planners and local councillors", he said the party would seek reforms including:

changing the timing and structure of council meetings to maximise public involvement;

holding meetings in local community venues;

increasing the power of local authorities to regulate through by-laws;

ensuring the decision-making process is engaged "at the beginning and not towards the end of the local authority process".

The Greens are contesting 90 local authority areas and 30 town councils, including all wards in Dublin and Cork. There will be Green candidates in 20 of the 26 counties, compared with 11 in 1991. The campaign has targeted more than 40 local authority seats - at the moment it has 19 - and 40 per cent of the candidates are women.

Other campaign priorities include planning, where the party wants more bodies than An Taisce to be statutorily entitled to comment on applications.

It also favours the adoption of the Scottish system, in which all residents within a fixed distance of a planning development must be informed by letter about the project.

On housing, the Greens are promoting building on derelict rather than greenfield sites, limits on the numbers of houses in any one development, and the exemption from stamp duty of all homes under £150,000. They also demand the registration with local authorities of private rented properties, with supplementary rent allowance refused to landlords not on the list.

The party reiterates its opposition to incineration of waste, and to so-called "superdumps". It favours increased pedestrianisation programmes, with the promotion of car-free town centres; and as well as pushing for the earliest introduction of the Luas system in Dublin, it supports light rail projects for Cork and Limerick.