Kildare County Council has been accused of trying to "strangle" the Greater Dublin Regional Planning Guidelines to facilitate "developer-led planning" in the hinterland of the capital.
One of the constraints which the council is seeking to have removed from the draft is a statement referring to the protection of aquifers and the high-quality river system in the Naas-Newbridge area.
The Kildare Planning Alliance, a coalition of community groups, said the county council's official submission on the guidelines indicated that it intended to ignore the population targets in the draft even before it becomes public policy.
The submission, made by Mr Tommy Skehan, the council's director of services, said the guidelines should "reflect existing plans, land use zonings and economic strategies in place over the last 10 years". Otherwise, he warned, there would be "no certainty in the planning process for developers" who had invested in lands within the Greater Dublin Area (GDA), which includes Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.
"The promotion of the delivery of employment to development centres in the hinterland must be recognised as a priority rather than the third bullet point on a sliding scale. From Kildare's point of view, this is a critical objective."
Mr Skehan complained that the thrust of the draft guidelines "would appear to focus unduly on the reinforcement and concentration of employment opportunities in the metropolitan area", rather than promoting its hinterland.
"Kildare County Council also wishes to query \ the moderation in the pace of housing \ in the hinterland is to be achieved in the light of current zoning patterns, financial commitments and infrastructural delivery".
The council's submission also objected to the inclusion of a reference to the soil quality of agricultural land as a consideration, saying this was "not backed up by any legislative/implementation tools and should be removed".
A spokesman for the Kildare Planning Alliance said it was "a basic principle of good planning practice that the irretrievable commitment of resources entailed by developing high-quality soils for housing should at least be considered".
The council is also querying the adoption of a low-growth scenario for the GDA's population in 2016, describing it as "not convincing". It wants the draft to be amended to specify a target of 202,000 for the county in 2011 and 222,000 in 2016.
It also wants the status of Newbridge, which has a population of more than 15,000, to be recognised as a primary growth centre.
"This status has been enhanced by the recent decentralisation decision by the Department of Defence." The council also wants provision made in the draft for Kildare, Monasterevin and Athy to be recognised as secondary growth centres because they had an important role in the overall socio-economic development of the southern part of Co Kildare.
A spokesman for the Kildare Planning Alliance said it was now evident that Kildare County Council "intends to ignore the population targets in the regional planning guidelines" and to have them "liberalised to suit developer-led planning".
