COMMUTER COUNTIES/WICKLOW: North Wicklow is becoming a sprawling commuter belt, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor.
Within 12 months of the Greater Dublin Area Strategic Planning Guidelines (SPGs) being published in April 1999, Wicklow County Council was considering several major housing schemes that would treble the population of Newtownmountkennedy.
The problem was that Newtown, as it is known locally, had not been designated as a growth centre by the guidelines. The two-pub village was to be part of a "strategic greenbelt", with expansion confined to local needs.
Under the SPGs, only Bray and Greystones were included in the Dublin Metropolitan Area, while the rest of Co Wicklow was clearly identified as part of the capital's hinterland, with just Wicklow town and Arklow designated for development as significant growth centres.
However, this did not deter major Dublin housebuilders such as Dwyer Nolan and Gannon Homes assembling land banks around Newtown. Along with other developers (Springmount, Swanoaks and Garden Village), plans were put forward to build more than 2,200 new homes in the area.
The county council responded by drawing up a local area plan for Newtown on the basis that it had already been designated as a "local growth centre" in the county plan. One senior official, Bryan Doyle, noted that it was only 20 miles from Dublin and had "excellent access" to the N11.
It didn't seem to matter that Newtown had no community centre, no health centre, no cinema, no Garda station, no bus service to Dublin and not even a link to the DART line at Greystones, as local GP Dr Craig Bishop pointed out. And there was only one secondary school between Bray and Wicklow town.
Like other members of the Newtownmountkennedy Area Development Action Group, he complained that the plans had been prepared in the offices of property developers or their agents. They did not address the lack of facilities, which had already caused serious social problems.
Kiaran O'Malley, an experienced planning consultant engaged by the county council to advise on the local area plan, told his clients that the Strategic Planning Guidelines "appear opposed to anything other than planning for local needs" in Newtown, where the indigenous demand for housing was "extremely modest".
Michael Grace, of Brady Shipman Martin, the firm which advised on drafting the guidelines, said he believed it would be "very difficult" to justify Wicklow County Council's plans for Newtown - as well as Kilcoole, Ashford, Newcastle and other villages - in light of their recommendations.
The effect of targeting such villages as "local growth centres" would be to create a development corridor down the N11, deep into Co Wicklow. This would extend Dublin's sprawl in precisely the way the SPGs sought to avoid.
While the plans were being considered, the Dublin Transportation Office lodged a written objection with the county council pointing out that excessive housing development along the N11 would impair the strategic importance of the route to Rosslare by clogging the corridor with commuter traffic.
In March 2001, two months after the SPGs were given statutory force, the Department of the Environment wrote to the county council querying its plans for large-scale rezoning of greenbelt land in Newtown and Kilcoole, saying this represented "a very significant divergence" from the guidelines.
Noting that the then Minister, Noel Dempsey, had requested that each local authority in the Greater Dublin Area "should ensure that its development plan is in line with the strategy set out in the guidelines", the Department said it was its "strong view that the proposed town plans should not be adopted".
The county council carried on regardless, blithely ignoring a veiled threat by Dempsey that he would invoke Section 31 of the 2000 Planning Act to enforce compliance with the SPGs. However, it proceeded to adopt the controversial local plans without sanction.
Despite fierce opposition, enough land was zoned around Newtown to double its population in five years, with developers clubbing together to fund a new sewage mains.
But Dick Roche TD (FF), said the council was merely licensing land for house-building - "you couldn't call it planning" - while Cllr Deirdre de Burca (Green Party) and Cllr Tommy Cullen (Labour) called for Wicklow's planning procedures to be independently investigated. An Taisce also threatened to seek a judicial review if the council adopted local area plans for Newtown, Kilcoole, Enniskerry, Ashford and Glenealy, all in the "strategic greenbelt" area under the SPGs. But it didn't do so, concentrating instead on an ultimately unsuccessful legal action against the Meath county plan.
Ironically, it was in Greystones, one of the areas designated for growth under the SPGs, that local politicians have been opposed to higher density residential development. They include Cllr Derek Mitchell (FG), who campaigned for the DART to be extended there. Though the guidelines emphasise the importance of locating new development close to public transport corridors, he was appalled by An Bord Pleanála's recent decision to approve plans for 1,446 houses and apartments on a 108-acre site at Charlesland, immediately south of Burnaby Estate.
The scheme is next to a proposed major industrial park that is of such a scale that there are suggestions to relocate Greystones railway station to serve it. In line with the county council's plan, it includes provision for a southern relief road that would also serve as a bypass for the expanding village of Delgany.
Together with IDA Ireland, the developers, headed by Ballymore Homes Ltd, even offered to lend money to the county council to build a new interchange on the N11 at Kilpedder. But Cllr Mitchell opposed the plan because it exceeded the council's density standards and was also deficient in the provision of open space.
If all of the land now zoned for development is built on, Co Wicklow's population will soar over the next five years. This could produce a a massive suburban sprawl encompassing all of the north-east of the county as far as Wicklow town, with no detailed plans for schools and other facilities.
The people of Arklow, one of the county's designated growth centres, have been relying on tankers for their drinking water since the fluoridation plant broke down six months ago. And although hundreds of new houses are being built there, the town still has no sewage treatment plant. Raw sewage pours into the Avoca river.
Wicklow County Council is currently seeking opinions from the public on its county development plan 2004-2009. According to the most recent review of the SPGs, there is already adequate zoned land to meet the demand for housing in the Greater Dublin Area. But it is doubtful if Wicklow councillors will leave it at that.
Additional reporting by Tim O'Brien
