Sir, - I refer to Dick Roche's defence (March 16th) of his recent involvement in two proposals to rezone large tracts of land for industrial use at Rathnew and Kilpedder during Wicklow County Council discussions on the new development plan. I feel his defence rings very hollow when you consider the way these major re-zonings were done.
The Draft County Development Plan had been on display for three months and at our January meeting to consider the many submissions made by various interested parties - community groups, residents' associations, landowners, planning consultants - late on in the evening of our meeting Mr Roche came in with very strong support for these two rezoning proposals. These were contained in landowners' and planning consultants' submissions to the draft plan. Despite the very strong case made by the planning staff against these proposals on the grounds of major lack of services and that town plans were to be prepared for Rathnew/Ashford and Kilpedder during 1999, the meeting finally agreed to put the rezoning proposals in the next stage of consultation on the draft plan.
Both areas are at present totally unsuitable for industrial zoning due to the lack of major services such as sewerage facilities and road access. But equally important is the fact that the council is preparing town plans for both areas during 1999 and these two proposals were flying in the face of democracy by zoning ahead of the consultation process.
Even more odd is when you compare Mr Roche's lack of support for the county council planners' proposals for industrial zonings in his own electoral area of Greystones, where there are services such as water and sewerage, the DART is soon to arrive, and there is a definite proposal to link the area to the N11 (his Minister has already allocated money for this).
I hope Mr Roche will use his influence as a Government TD for the area to ensure success for the employment zonings agreed for the Greystones/Delgany area by obtaining high quality jobs for the communities of Greystones, Kilcoole, Newcastle, Newtown and Kilpedder and also allowing the people of Rathnew/Ashford their input to their town plan. - Yours, etc., Cllr George Jones,
La Touche Close, Greystones, Co Wicklow.