Clare council is warned of threat to planning policy

Clare County Council's planning director has warned that Clare will be left without a planning system if proposed changes to the county development plan, sought by councillors, are implemented.

Mr Ger Dollard told a special meeting of the council at the weekend that if councillors sought more exemptions to council planning policy, "the county will then be left without a planning policy which will result in uncontrolled development".

He made his comments after a discussion by councillors during which calls were made from all sides to relax restrictions on one-off housing, in an overhaul of the county development plan.

In a 16-page statement, Mr Dollard agreed to relax the general ban on "non-locals" building in the open countryside - to facilitate returning emigrants to build in restricted areas - and to review the 1999 development plan.

However, for councillors, these concessions did not go far enough and a number of additional immediate amendments to the plan were called for. In written submissions to Mr Dollard from 16 of the 32 councillors, 66 amendments were proposed, the majority relating to the council's contentious settlement location policy.

Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said: "Before we look after people from the outside, we should look after local people. We have not seen the flexibility as promised and the quicker the development plan is reviewed, the better."

With planning refusals rising to almost one in five in the county last year, Cllr Tom Burke (FF) said: "We have been assured of flexibility and common sense, but there has been a lack of that."

Under the plan, non-locals are generally banned from building in the open countryside in areas designated as being under "high development pressure" and "visually vulnerable". This includes most of the Burren, the entire Clare coastline, the Lough Derg region and much of the east of the county. Despite the restrictions, the council has granted planning permission for 3,300 one-off houses since the plan was adopted.

However, Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said the plan was "a refusal kit" for one-off housing and called for the abolition of a 3 km exclusion zone for the construction of new houses around designated villages.

Cllr Mary Mannion (PD) said: "It is not a bad plan, but we do have a big problem with interpretation to the plan from planners."

Mr Christy Curtin (Ind) said: "The evidence is there with the increase in refusals. We cannot wait for the plan to be changed - we must do it now."

The most vocal critic of council planning policy in recent times, Mr P.J. Kelly (FF), cautioned against overhauling the plan.

"This would present us with a nightmare scenario where all the 'born againsts' - Dúchas, An Taisce and the rest - would have their say. And there is a better chance of a bat getting out of hell than we getting what we would want in that situation."

Mr Dollard told councillors he was agreeable to a review of "visually vulnerable" and "high-pressure" areas. With councillors unable to present a united case on what changes they seek, he was asked to report back to the March meeting with a further response to their concerns.