An Bord Pleanala's decision to grant planning permission for 270 suburban-style houses on the edge of Dunleer, Co Louth, has been condemned by the chairman of the village's steering committee as "arrogant", "uninspired", and amounting to "economic and social suicide".
Mr Gerry Crilly said it would almost double the population of Dunleer, which currently has 1,200 inhabitants. But instead of providing affordable housing for local people, the new estate would be largely populated by commuters travelling to and from jobs in Dublin. It was "neither right nor proper" that a 31-acre housing estate - "one house after the other of similar suburban style, design and layout" - should be added to a village that dates back to early Christian times. It represented a failure by the planning authorities to legislate against "developer-led sprawl".
Mr Crilly, who is also honorary secretary of the Co Louth branch of An Taisce, said the "visionless expansion" of Dunleer was symptomatic of "a very serious modern Irish problem for all settlements within a 50-mile radius of Dublin" and for smaller towns and villages within commuting distance of other cities.
The Dunleer Steering Committee, set up last year to devise a sustainable development plan for the village, had appealed against Louth County Council's decision in June to approve plans by Austin Developments Ltd for 21 detached and 249 semi-detached houses on a site just off the Dublin road.
In its ruling, An Bord Pleanala said it considered the proposed housing estate would be "in accordance with the proper planning and development of the area".
It also made the planning permission, which is subject to 11 standard conditions, valid for 10 years "in the interest of the orderly expansion of the village".
But Mr Crilly said the houses - designed by Dublin-based architects and planning consultants Brady Shipman Martin - were likely to cost over £150,000 each, which would put them well beyond the means of local people. They would be bought by a "new class" of home-buyers with well-paid jobs in Dublin.
He also complained that there were no plans to reopen the railway station in Dunleer, on the Dublin-Belfast line.
"So all of these welcome new families will have to commute by car to their places of work, which will be long distances from Dunleer, as we obviously cannot sustain employment for so many above-average income earners."
Mr Crilly said the proposed housing estate was "entirely premature" pending the completion of an area action plan for the village. An Bord Pleanala's decision to approve it contradicted the successful outcome of five earlier appeals taken by the committee against other schemes it regarded as inappropriate.
He said the committee had received "great support" both from An Taisce and the Heritage Council, but "no support from the county council", which is currently installing a new sewerage scheme in the village.
It was only as a result of pressure from the community that the county council agreed to commission the action plan.
According to Mr Crilly, Dunleer is being "overwhelmed by development".
However, there are voices in Dunleer in favour of development. Cllr Thomas Clare (FF) said that every area, small town and village in Ireland "deserves a share of prosperity" and there was no reason why Dunleer could not "aspire to have more professional, high-tech jobs" and even an allocation of decentralised civil servants.
Mr Clare, who lives in the village, said he wanted to see Dunleer develop as a "model small town", in line with the area action plan now being drafted by architects Murray O'Laoire for Louth County Council. As elsewhere, however, the only problem was that "development is running ahead of planning policy".