Fianna Fail TD withdraws proposal to rezone 150 acres in Wicklow

The Wicklow Fianna Fail TD Mr Dick Roche has withdrawn his proposal to rezone 150 acres of land just north of Rathnew, Co Wicklow.

The proposal will, however, now be considered by the county council as part of an area development plan for the Rathnew/Ashford region.

The proposal - to create a "world class" business park fronting Hunter's Hotel, a coaching inn dating from 1720 and popular with the Swedish royal family - - was due for adoption as part of the Wicklow County Development Plan last night.

However, the acting senior executive planner in Wicklow, Ms Sinead Curley, advised strongly that the proposal should be dropped from the plan. The area, according to Ms Curley, was only served by a most inadequate road system, and had no direct access from the proposed Ashford-Rath new by-pass.

Summarising submissions which were all opposed to the proposal, she said it had been claimed that the area was subject to severe flooding. While this happened up to three times a year, in severe weather conditions the land could be under five feet of sea and rain water, it was argued.

The area also had no drainage - for either surface water or sewage - and establishing the business campus could have a severe effect of the water levels of the Vartry river further downstream, according to Ms Curley.

Earlier, in support of a successful move to rezone 77 acres at Kilpedder, Mr Roche had argued that Wicklow needed the jobs which would be provided from a business campus. He believed that the rezoning of land would encourage the Department of the Environment to allocate funds for infrastructural improvements. Fianna Fail councillors voted en bloc in favour of rezoning the 77 acre site.

However, as the vote on the Rathnew proposal neared it became apparent that there were divisions within the Fianna Fail camp and among other members of the county council. After a break for refreshments, the Fianna Fail councillors were absent from the chamber for about 15 minutes.

When the councillors returned, Mr Roche said he would be willing to propose that the rezoning be considered as part of the forthcoming Ashford/Rathnew development plan, one of a series of town plans throughout Wicklow which are to be adopted as material contraventions of the county plan.

Having heard the report from Ms Curley, Mr Roche asked when the flooding had occurred and on being told it was 1986, he ascertained that it was August of that year. This was, he said, the time that Hurricane Charlie hit this island and he maintained that "half of Bray was under water that night. Should we now bulldoze that?"

"As a planner advising the council you should do a little homework and check the facts," he told Ms Curley. Later he said it was not his intention to be personal.

Mr Roche said there "is a problem of sustainable development with the county rapidly becoming a dormitory county". He said the only development land available was the Murrough in Wicklow town and the council could get no new industries for that area.

He said there was a need for zoning for industrial development and Rathnew should not be "condemned to dormitory status". A Fine Gael senator, Mr Shane Ross, said Hunter's Hotel was "one of the great treasures of Wicklow" and he would not vote to destroy its "bucolic" setting.

The council also voted to rezone 170 acres at Greystones and a 40-acre site at Fassaroe, near Bray, for industrial use in the north-east of the county.