Madam, - Can any conclusion be drawn from the proposal by Laois County Council to rezone 1,000 acres around smaller towns and villages except that short-term private and political gain are at the top of the agenda?
It would make far more sense to make the larger towns more attractive places to live, so reducing traffic and enabling services and amenities to be rationalised. Instead the envisaged development will inevitably be low-density housing for car-dependent commuters - the best scenario for landowners and builders, and the worst for everyone else.
If a system can be exploited to favour the private over the general interest it is inherently corrupt, regardless of whether decisions are actively bought or not. How can the Minister for the Environment continue to believe that new powers to go with new planning guidelines are not necessary? It might be true if good planning practice was an ingrained habit, and it was not possible to create massive windfalls at the stroke of a pen, but without reform the system will continue to encourage corruption, inflationary speculation, traffic misery and public service meltdown.
As with penalty points, directives are meaningless unless enforced. Meanwhile convictions obtained on foot of tribunal investigations have been for offences other than corruption.
The Laois proposal is a perfect example of how the benefits of a new or upgraded road will rapidly be reversed by a rezoning frenzy. Without meaningful reform the same will happen in Meath if the M3 (in whatever form) and M2 go ahead. It is perfectly feasible for developers to make money within a system in which the management of population densities and the provision of proper amenities are not seen as tiresome optional extras, but essential for quality of life in the largely urban, industrial society in which we now live.
This proposal, if allowed to go ahead, will further reinforce the economic dominance of the greater Dublin area. This means that a decision by what is essentially a local interest group will have negative consequences for the country as a whole, which is competition of the most unhealthy kind. An ever closer replica of the English situation will be created, with massive pressure on roads, housing and services around the capital, and underdevelopment elsewhere.
Must we do this to ourselves? - Yours, etc.,
CHARLES BAGWELL,
Millbrook,
Straffan,
Co Kildare.