People in south Meath are asking "is democracy dead?" following a series of decisions by their local councillors to rezone large tracts of land for new housing, including a greenbelt area prone to flooding. All the decisions were made against planning advice.
In Dunboyne, the six area councillors decided to rezone the grounds of its castle and part of the green belt separating it from Clonee just one month after a crowded public meeting at which all but five of the 700 people present voted against these proposals.
One Fine Gael councillor, Mr John Fanning, ignored the views of his party leader, Mr John Bruton, who had made it clear that he was opposed to any new development east of the old railway line in Dunboyne. The other, Ms Mary Bergin, proposed the castle rezoning.
Building more housing in the area before there were firm plans to reinstate the railway line would be premature, Mr Bruton said. Earlier this month, after the councillors had gone ahead, he told the local paper: "This is bad planning and I am not happy with it at all."
The other four local councillors - Mr Conor Tormey (FF), Mr Oliver Brooks (FF), Mr Nick Killian (FF) and Mr Brian Fitzgerald (Ind) - also voted for and, in some cases, sponsored rezoning motions for Dun boyne, Dunshaughlin, Ratoath and Kilbride, all in south Meath.
In Kilbride, where Bovale Developments Ltd either owns or holds options on much of the land, a "new town" of some 2,000 houses is planned even though the council was advised that it would be "contrary to the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area".
Mr Joe Fahy, senior planner, also told the councillors that the rezonings in Dunboyne were "at best premature", that Ratoath did not have "an industrial or commercial base to sustain such an extent of residential growth" and that the Dunshaughlin rezonings were "unjustified". In a written report to the council, Mr Fahy said there was "no inherent need for both the castle grounds and the lands east of the railway line (in Dunboyne) to be zoned at the present time". There were also "serious constraints" in terms of sewage treatment capacity. Deficient sewerage is one of the real constraints on development in south Meath. Currently, a certain amount of the area's sewage is accepted by Fingal County Council, but requests to increase this have been refused because Fingal has its own development needs.
There is also growing concern in Mulhuddart, Blanchardstown and other parts of the Dublin 15 postal district that large-scale housing schemes across the county boundary in Meath will bring even more traffic into these areas, in the absence of a commuter rail service.
Local people are particularly critical of a proposal to rezone 42 acres of land at Dunboyne Castle, owned by Kepak Ltd, for housing. They point to the minutes of a meeting before last year's local elections at which all six area councillors agreed that it should not be rezoned.
Menolly Homes Ltd, which has acquired an option on the castle grounds from Kepak, made a submission to the county council requesting that the land be rezoned for residential development. Previously, it had been zoned for tourist amenity and recreational uses.
Cllr Nick Killian, who is a full-time political adviser to local TD and Minister of State Ms Mary Wallace, explained that the situation had changed. "We have rezoned 250 acres at Clonee for a business park and this land will now help provide accommodation for employees," he said.
The councillors proceeded with rezoning the castle grounds and part of Dunboyne's green belt against the wishes of the majority of residents, as expressed in 1,600 signed letters to Meath County Council. The local Fianna Fail cumann was also opposed to it.
According to calculations by the Dunboyne Combined Residents Association, the rezoning of 127 acres of green belt east of the railway line, 42 acres of the castle grounds and a further 23 acres already zoned could produce 2,600 houses, more than doubling Dunboyne's current population of around 5,000.
What particularly concerns local residents is that part of the rezoned green belt lies in the flood plain of the River Tolka. Mr Jim McGrath, chairman of the DCRA, said in the absence of hydrological or hydrogeological surveys, the councillors' decision was "irresponsible".
Dunboyne was badly hit by flooding in early November. "On the same day that the floods hit the homes of our residents, our local county councillors voted for housing development in flood plains and swamps adjacent to Dunboyne village", Mr McGrath complained.
Some of the houses that were flooded had been built just west of the old railway line under a planning permission granted by Meath County Council in 1996 - despite being warned by one local resident, Mr Ambrose Dunne, that the proposed housing was in the flood plain.
In a letter to the council while the planning application was under consideration, Mr Dunne said he knew from personal experience that the Tolka "regularly bursts its banks and overflows into the field" off Clonee Road, where a total of 89 new homes were to be built.
"If the proposed development goes ahead, the prospective buyers of these houses will, thereafter, be threatened with the prospect of having their homes flooded," he wrote. "I think it would be an act of gross irresponsibility for the development to be sanctioned."
Mr McGrath confirmed that local residents had objected to the building of more houses in the flood plain areas of Dunboyne. "They were thanked for their submissions by Meath County Council, the planning was approved, the estates were built and the floods came."
Local communities have formed the South Meath Planning Alliance to give voice to widespread concerns about land rezoning. They have called on the local councillors to "resign forthwith" and threatened to run their own candidates in the next general election.
In the meantime, the new alliance has been in contact with its counterparts in counties Kildare and Wicklow. Like them, it is calling on the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey - a Fianna Fail TD for Meath - to use his power to uphold the Strategic Planning Guidelines.