Sir, – I have recently had experience in contesting a ludicrously ill-suited series of planning applications in our area.
As a part of that process, I spent a good deal of time reviewing Dún Laoghaire Rathdown’s County Development Plan, a result of several years of public consultation combined with political directives.
I also reviewed a report commissioned about five years ago on the operation of An Bord Pleanála. There were 101 sound and sensible recommendations, only 36 of which were adopted.
The current Minister’s response has been to commission yet another study.
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It is time to return planning to a community and local government-led process which opens up a sound long-term rental market and which seeks to provide housing for sale to all types of homeowners, from singles to young families and older people. The variety of housing currently on offer is laughably inadequate.
Developers who are concerned with maximising profits should be a smaller part of the process rather than leading it.
Those choosing to submit applications must be forced to comply with very specific threshold requirements, including pre-planning consultation, to avoid clogging the system with projects that do not comply with local development plans. – Yours, etc,
KERRI CULLEN,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.
