Sir, - I wish to express my dismay at the failure of local authorities in the greater Dublin area to properly implement the Strategic Planning Guidelines, even though these have had statutory effect since the introduction of the Planning and Development Act 2000. As an elected member of Wicklow County Council I strongly opposed the draft development plans for Kilcoole and Newtown earlier this year, as they were clearly in breach of the guidelines. The Department of the Environment shared my view and its timely intervention ensured that the excessive levels of rezoning within these plans were reduced. Despite this intervention, the adjusted plans for both villages remain in breach of the guidelines.
The basic problem in Wicklow appears to be the council's reluctance to abandon the Growth Settlement Strategy (1995) that underpins the current County Development Plan.
This strategy sought to disperse development into various primary and secondary growth centres around the county. In contrast, the Strategic Planning Guidelines (SPGs) divide the Greater Dublin Area into the "metropolitan area" and the "hinterland area" and seek to concentrate all developments in Wicklow into Bray and Greystones (metropolitan area), and Wicklow Town and Arklow (hinterland). The SPGs specify that development planned for other parts of the county should be for "local growth" only.
While the council is currently implementing certain aspects of the SPGs (higher residential densities in Bray and Greystones), a number of development plans it has recently drafted suggest that the original strategy of developing a range of primary and secondary growth centres around the county is being pursued, in conflict with the SPGs. This will result in population levels within the county rising sharply from 102,000 (1996 census) to approximately 200,000 in 2016. It is unclear how the council intends to fund the necessary infrastructure for such an enlarged population, as the Government has indicated that it will provide such funding only for growth centres designated under the SPGs.
I appeal to the Department of the Environment and Local Government to properly police the implementation of these regional guidelines. If it fails to do so, it should abandon its plans to introduce the long-promised National Spatial Strategy and any pretence at addressing the "regional imbalance" in development and population distribution in this country. The uncontrolled expansion of Dublin may then continue uninterrupted. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr DΘirdre De B·rca, (Green Party), Oaklands, Greystones, Co Wicklow.