When the original planning application for almost 300 houses in Delgany was approved by Wicklow County Council in January, 1996, Mr Patrick Pender, cochairman of the Delgany Residents' Action Group, told a public meeting that his committee was not surprised.
According to the 1989 Wicklow County Development Plan, the land is zoned for a maximum of seven houses to an acre. Mr Pender and his committee said they did not have any confidence that the county council would opt for anything less than the maximum development allowed, although it could, if it wished, grant permission for a lower density.
The council, which was supposed to be the guardian of the county, "appears to be willing to destroy the village", Mr Pender said.
This is a familiar claim in an area where individuals have been refused permission for one-off houses and the suggestion that an application for 300 houses has a better chance than a one-house application is made only partly in jest.
Central to the problem is the development plan itself, which is currently being redrafted. The Minister for the Environment has given the council until the end of this year to come up with a new development plan.
However, for Delgany residents at least, the new development plan is unlikely to offer any major changes. There is no "Delgany Development Plan": the relevant section in the County Development Plan refers to Greystones and Delgany.
Wicklow County Council's senior executive planner, Mr Des O'Brien, is on record as saying that the area is "one conurbation" - in effect a dormitory town for commuters to Dublin.
The notion of a widened and improved road from Greystones through the centre of Delgany to the N11 is entirely consistent with this view and would play a large part in making this route less dangerous. The £5,000 levy on each new house, imposed as a condition of planning approval, would go some way towards getting this road built.
However, this is precisely what the residents of Delgany do not want. People living in the area feel that the council has no appreciation of the intrinsic value of the village.
Those who take issue with the planners point to a number of decisions in recent years which they feel have been bad for the county.
The Ballynagran-Coolbeg Act ion Committee picketed county council meetings for over three years in protest at a decision to site a landfill "superdump" on a 300-acre site near Rathnew.
The decision was taken by the county manager, who decided not to take the advice of the elected members, a majority of whom had voted against the dump. Having failed in a Supreme Court case to force the manager to act as the council wished, the Ballynagran-Coolbeg Action Group is now hoping that the Environmental Protection Agency will refuse to license the dump.
In Greystones, local people are angry that discussions going back 10 years have been taking place between the county council and Mr Albert Gubay's Kirkham Enterprises on the building of a £50 million marina on the North Beach.
The Greystones residents feel they are being asked to agree to land being rezoned for housing to financially support the marina while there are few guarantees that the marina project would go ahead after the rezoning.
Recently, excavation work was undertaken by a private landowner at The Murrough, an amenity area in Wicklow town protected under EU wildlife directives. A county council representative claimed on East Coast Radio that the excavation was exempted development. The matter is now being investigated by the Office of Public Works.
Meanwhile, in Blessington, there have been calls for a public inquiry over the sale of Glen Ding Woods to Roadstone for use as a quarry.
A local Fianna Fail TD, Mr Dick Roche, has said that the council would be "damned by future generations" over the sale of this high-amenity area, which was subsequently rezoned to allow quarrying. Mr Roche also questioned why no company other than Roadstone was permitted to bid for the woods.
Another issue of concern is an application for planning permission for a number of wind turbines on a hillside to the northwest of Arklow. The area, known as the Beech Road, is one of noted beauty. Councillors have been angered that discussions between council officials and the applicants for the wind farm seemed to be well advanced before they were informed. A Fine Gael councillor, Mr Tom Honan, said that he was in possession of a letter sent from the council to Windpower Ireland Ltd stating that permission would be granted, subject to conditions.
In fact, the assent of a majority of the councillors would be required for the application to be approved, since the proposed development represents a material contravention of the county development plan.
At least some of these issues were the subject of a specially convened meeting of the council last month to discuss what was described as a "planning crisis" in the county. However, neither the county manager, Mr Blaise Treacy, nor his deputy, Mr Hubert Fitzpatrick, were able to attend this meeting because of prior commitments.