MERVYN A. CRAWFORD,
Sir, - Planning law in rural Ireland will never be equitable until some balance is found between the "social contract"of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau and the principle of subsidiarity as expounded in the EU.
The former cedes local and individual rights to a central Government in return for law and order and the common weal. The latter proposes that any decision which can be made locally should be made locally so that local interests, in truly local matters, will prevail.
To find this balance should not be beyond the wit of intelligent, democratic government.
Our village fell into the gap between these two principles - a time-gap of about five years. In 1996 central Government empowered Cork County Council to re-zone agricultural land in Castletownshend for building. Villagers took little notice and made no objections. They thought that the land would be gradually developed to build houses for their sons and daughters, to look after them in their old age. The community would grow gradually and cohesively.
In 2001, into the time-gap stepped a developer whose sole purpose was to make a profit from developing the land. Understandably, the villagers now find that the developer has received planning permission for 73 holiday homes in a village of fewer than 30 families. Their lives will be changed irrevocably. Almost unanimously, they object. They are told that their objections are valid and reasonable but the earlier decisions of central Government and Cork County Council on re-zoning the land pre-empts subsidiarity.
"Bungalow Blitz" may be an important planning issue. "Holiday Home Holocaust" is the greatest danger to rural Ireland and the people who live in it. - Yours, etc.,
MERVYN A. CRAWFORD,
Cross Street,
Castletownshend,
Co Cork.