Mayo county councillors have been accused of rabble-rousing while turning a blind eye to the long-term damage done by intensive over development, writes Frank McDonald
For 10,000 years, there were char in Lough Conn. But stocks of this pre-historic fish have been wiped out over the past decade by pollution from agriculture, town sewage and septic tanks, according to Mr Vincent Roche, chief executive of the North Western Fisheries Board.
"Angling tourism is virtually finished because trout stocks have been virtually wiped out in Lough Cullin and are down to about a third of what they were in Lough Conn," he said.
"And though our concern is fish stocks, many group water schemes are contaminated, so there's a public health issue involved, too."
Mayo county councillors don't seem to care, judging by their rabble-rousing speeches at a protest meeting in Foxford last Sunday attended by more than 300 landowners.
They want to have Mr Roche reined in because of his success in bringing appeals to An Bord Pleanála against new houses near the lakes.
The fisheries board's track record is daunting. In 1999, it took seven appeals in cases such as this and won them all. The following year, nine of its 14 appeals were upheld, two were not and three more are still pending.
Of the seven appeals lodged in 2001, one has already been decided in its favour and the remaining six are pending.
The board has also been active in opposing more housing in Castlebar, where the town sewerage system is overloaded, contributing to the problem of phosphorous enrichment in the lakes. Over the past three years, it has lodged nine appeals, of which seven are still pending; the two decided cases were both won by the board.
Mr Roche is uncontrite. "Nobody at that meeting seemed to ask the fundamental question about why these permissions are being turned down. It's to do with water quality and public health," he said. "The fact is that some of the soils are unsuitable for septic tank drainage, as a report done 10 years ago clearly showed."
At the protest meeting Beverley CooperFlynn said it was "wrong to have so much power invested in one man", adding that he should be "more under the control of his board members". One of her associates, Cllr Jimmy Maloney, also a member of Fianna Fáil, and an "outspoken" member of the fisheries board, agreed wholeheartedly.
Ms Cooper-Flynn's partner, Tony Gaughan, is one of the most prolific Mayo property developers. They live in one of the visually intrusive houses he built on the seaward side of the road at Cockle Strand, in Murrisk, for which permission was granted by the county council without any third-party appeal.
The councillors are equally angry with An Taisce over its relatively few planning interventions in Co Mayo. At their February meeting, Cllr Johnny Mee (Labour) had this to say: "Oliver Cromwell is remembered for saying 'To hell or to Conn-acht' but what An Taisce is now saying is 'To hell out of Connacht.' It's outrageous."
As a prescribed body under the Planning Acts, An Taisce is entitled to receive details of planning applications affecting amenities - so the councillors decided to hit back by voting unanimously to "de-list" it. If they carry this through, An Taisce has threatened to seek legal redress against them "personally and collectively".
According to Cllr Al McDonnell (Fianna Fáil), the conservation body knows nothing about a county like Mayo and they care less. "They want to see empty, barren hillsides with no lights after 5 p.m," he said. "An Taisce is playing their part in that. They will oppose vehemently the construction of one simple hamlet in the countryside."
When it was put to him that An Taisce had appealed against only one house in Mayo over the past five years, he said it was the "mentality it represents" that was being criticised and its "growing influence" on planning decisions generally - as reflected in a "300 per cent increase in the rate of refusals" in recent years.
Mr McDonnell is an estate agent in Castlebar and former chairman of the county council. In 2000, a Galway-based developer told him he would be appointed to handle a major housing scheme in the area if it got planning permission. "Looking forward to working with you on this project to our mutual benefit," it said. Asked if this represented a conflict of interest, he said it was not as he had "very little influence" on planning decisions and, in any case, most of his business would be in the Castlebar UDC area.
According to Michael Smith, national chairman of An Taisce: "An unsustainable 65 per cent of housing in Mayo is built in the countryside" - much of it targeted at commuters and the holiday home market rather than farm families. If it had more resources, it would lodge appeals against many more such houses.
"An Taisce's policies support balanced regional development and in particular state that no more than 25 per cent of development should take place in the Greater Dublin Area.Mayo County Council takes no stance on this issue, the most important issue facing Mayo. Instead it spends its time attacking An Taisce."
Mayo also has one of the lowest rates for planning refusals in the State. Only 9 per cent of the applications decided last year were turned down, though this is up from a level of less than 3 per cent in 1994. The council also operates under a county development plan adopted in 1992 which should have been revised five years ago.
Because the plan is so liberal, particularly on rural housing, the councillors have been reluctant to replace it, fearing that a new county plan might be more restrictive. Public consultation on a new draft plan has finally got under way in recent weeks and the council had been given a deadline to adopt a new plan by December, 2003.
Ironically, as a result of the councillors' "rabble-rousing", which is widely seen as an effort to make planning a hot issue in the general election, Mr Smith said An Taisce had been contacted by local people who want it to form a Mayo Association."This we now intend to do," he declared. Anyone interested can call 01-4541786.