Madam, - Once again the debate about Co Wicklow's "locals only" policy is raging, with streams of Dubliners and others complaining to Derek Davis on RTÉ's afternoon show that this is "not fair".
But should we not plan for the future? If we only follow market trends then decisions will be made for the short-term gain of a small privileged sector of our society. Planning has proven its value in providing long-term, equitable and efficient results and every planning document in the country says the same thing. Every Government policy says the same thing. All the national, regional and local plans say the same thing. Currently there is a set of draft guidelines for local authorities on how to write a development plan - it says the same thing. There is a policy document from the NRA - it says the same. There is a recent report by the Institute of Public Health - it says the same thing. We should focus development in a compact urban form and restrict development in rural hinterlands.
This "locals only" policy goes back many years and was introduced as a response to the planning guidelines that inform us that the only hope of a sustainable future requires that we avoid a dispersed settlement strategy. This is not only to avoid spoiling the visual beauty of this country but for numerous economic, social and environmental reasons.
For example, Ireland is a small country with just over four million people. We cannot afford to provide modern physical and social infrastructure across the whole land and we need to focus our resources in those areas where the most people will benefit.
Similarly, big employers want to locate in strong urban areas but even after nearly doubling the population of Wicklow by 2016 we will still only have four towns with over 20,000 people. Most other towns will be well below 5,000. It is vital that we strengthen our main urban areas to be competitive in a global economy, not allow them to be dispersed.
The first plan to express this idea formally in Ireland was the Regional Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Region in 1999. This said that the nation's best future lay in focusing development in the metropolitan area and the growth centres in the surrounding counties. Outside of this, in the hinterland, growth should be "local growth only" (probably 10-15 per cent in a five- year period). The author didn't intend local need to mean local people. He intended that the needs of the local area be assessed and no growth allowed except to meet the needs of the area. The demand for housing in rural Wicklow is mainly not from locals but from Dublin workers who cannot afford Dublin prices so this would have meant little or no development in all the small towns and villages in Wicklow. It was only in response to tremendous pressure from the development lobby that the council has tried to compromise and allow more growth by interpreting "local need" as "locals only" - a definition that has been weakened at every review of the county plan since then so that now only a small percentage is reserved for locals.
This development plan is not restrictive. In truth, it is too relaxed and the outcome will be far more dispersed settlement, which will not be to the advantage of these house buyers in the century ahead. A fairer response to the problem of housing Dublin workers at affordable prices would have been central government measures to implement the Kenny Report, or introduce rates on holiday homes or to deal with the many issues that have inhibited proper development in the proper places. - Yours, etc,
JUDY OSBORNE, Chairperson, the Wicklow Planning Alliance Wicklow Town.