Carlow County Council has moved to strengthen its policy on protecting the countryside from excessive development. A workshop is to be held next month at which councillors and planners will attempt to agree a common approach on how rural parts of the county are to be developed.
The move follows concerns expressed by some councillors about the high rate of planning refusals in the Carlow countryside.
The council's chief planner, Mr Liam Fitzgerald, said yesterday that people currently had to show there was an economic or social need for building in a particular rural location. An economic need might be that the person was farming on the land concerned, while a social need could be that they had family living in the area.
He said this did not amount to discrimination against people from outside Carlow as the restrictions also applied to those wishing to move from an urban area within the county to the countryside, or from one rural area to another.
There was continuous pressure on the council, he said, to hold the line on such developments and adhere to the policy laid down in the county development plan. This plan in turn had to take account of national policy on the issue.
In a report circulated to councillors, Mr Fitzgerald said the Department of the Environment's position was that demand for housing in the countryside from people working in cities and towns was "generally unsustainable". It was essential that both the elected members and the executive of the council shared a common vision in relation to how rural Carlow was developed.
The one-day workshop, to be held early next month, is to be facilitated by Mr Ciaran Lynch, director of rural development at the Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute.