Gordon Deegan
The sustained level and cumulative effect of one-off housing in Co Clare "is a matter of serious concern", the county council's head of planning, Mr Ger Dollard, said yesterday.
Mr Dollard made his comment as the council released statistics showing that the changes demanded by councillors to ease the obtaining of planning for one-off housing had resulted in planning refusals going down by 5 per cent in the second quarter of this year on the corresponding period for 2002.
As a result, the council is now granting almost nine in every 10 planning applications, with the vast majority of applications being for single rural houses.
The current refusal rate of 12 per cent is well below the national average, Mr Dollard conceded yesterday.
He added that the grant rate of 88 per cent reflects the changes made to planning policy in the most recent variation to the County Development Plan.
Councillors secured the changes earlier this year after a long-running battle with planners over the implementation of the 1999 development plan.
Mr Dollard said: "When account is taken that the vast majority of planning applications still relate to one-off housing in the county, the high level of grants is an indication of the volumes of this type of development taking place throughout the county.
"The impact of this sustained level of one-off development, which is cumulative, is a matter of serious concern. While the council has made some progress in developing through consultation local area plans for many parts of the county, the level of one-off housing is still exceptionally high.
"This will put considerable pressure and demands for services and other infrastructural supports while at the same time having potentially negative impacts from waste water treatment and be a serious imposition on the landscape of the county."
Mr Dollard said that in the preparation of the county's new development plan, "cognisance will have to be taken of the level of development that has taken place, which has been permitted but not yet developed and the continued sustained pressure for substantial levels of one-off housing. In shaping the new plan regard will have to be had to government policy contained in the National Spatial Strategy."
The rise in grants and consequent downturn in refusals received a guarded welcome from members of Clare County Council yesterday. Over the past three years, the councillors have continually fought with council planners over the development plan, claiming that planning policies were too restrictive in areas already suffering from depopulation.
One of the leading critics of council planning policy, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF), said yesterday: "The figures are a step in the right direction, but the system is far from satisfactory."
Chairman of Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI) Mr Jim Connolly said that people in west Clare had lost heart over planning and were not lodging applications, knowing that they would be refused.