RESIDENTS of Delgany, Co Wicklow, are to meet on Thursday to revive their campaign against plans for a major housing development in the village.
The move follows the submission to Wicklow County Council of a new planning application for 263 houses on a site between Killincarrig and Delgany.
A similar plan for 294 houses by the same developer, Avmark Ltd, was refused permission by An Bord Pleanala last August.
The new application has surprised locals, who saw Bord Pleanala rejection of the original application as a vindication of their view that the infrastructure in the area could not support such a development. Wicklow county councillors are currently considering changes in the County Development Plan, which has to be revised by the end of 1997.
In refusing the earlier planning application An Bord Pleanala cited the inadequacy of the roads in the area and recommended that no further development take place until a by-pass road was built. In its latest application Avmark refers to this road being built within three years. Avmark also offers to build the proposed houses on a phased basis.
However, the Delgany Residents' Action Group, which successfully fought the first planning application, disputes the timescale for building a by-pass and argues that there is little difference between the two sets of plans.
A spokesman for the action group, Mr Patrick Pender, told The Irish Times that it was "nonsense to say that the by-pass could be built in three years. "There are no costings, no compulsory purchase orders and, in all our conversations with Wicklow County Council, the by-pass was referred to merely as a line on a map. Our information from the National Roads Authority is that the road is more likely to take seven years to build."
Mr Pender added that the reduction in the number of houses made "little difference".