Towns `must show commitment to good planning before they grow'

Towns aiming to become growth centres under the National Development Plan should have to demonstrate their commitment to good planning and sustainable development in advance, according to An Taisce.

"In view of the tainting of the planning process," the trust's national chairman, Mr Michael Smith, said, "it is particularly clear that a new regime should be put in place to ensure that development over the next 10 years in this booming economy is in the interests not just of developers."

An Taisce is proposing that growth centres or "gateway towns" as well as areas which might form part of the greater Dublin agglomeration should be selected following a high-profile competition, with full public participation, based on a range of criteria for environmental sustainability.

They would have to show that all major planning applications in the interim period before the judging were being dealt with in a sustainable way to ensure high-quality standards of development, as well as drawing up an inventory of historic buildings and promoting their renovation.

The competing towns would also have to adopt "mobility management plans" to reduce traffic congestion and provide public transport, cycling and walking alternatives to car use. Waste management and pollution control plans and a natural environment inventory would also be required.

Mr Smith said planning in the aspirant towns should rest with democratically accountable "round-table partnerships" of local authority planners, councillors, community groups, tourism and business interests, environmentalists, trade unionists and even property developers.

These round-table groups would oversee the preparation of area action plans for each town and more detailed plans for parts of the town where development is envisaged. They would also specify where development would not be permitted, including beauty spots, green belts and listed buildings.

Development would only be allowed if it complied with the round-table's framework plan and scored highly against a checklist of up to 50 planning criteria, such as design flair, sympathy to its setting, quality of materials, energy efficiency and the provision of amenities such as open spaces.

The criteria would also include a suitable mix of commercial, retail and residential development, impact on the immediate environment, provision of leisure facilities, landscaping, contribution to street life and a community linkage programme focused on providing jobs and housing for local people.

An Taisce said the success of each town's development should be continuously monitored under such headings as crime rates, unemployment rates, pollution levels, population mix, uses for which planning permissions are being granted, open space and perceptions of quality of life.

According to Mr Smith, land rezoning should be for a five-year period only, after which it would lapse. Towns that under-performed would not be permitted to rezone any more land; instead, other towns would be designated as growth centres following a further competition.

In the Greater Dublin Area and elsewhere he favoured the proposal made recently by Ms Eithne Fitzgerald (Labour councillor, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown) that a development authority should be set up to designate land for development and buy it at a marginal premium above its agricultural value.

It would then be up to the development authority to provide the necessary infrastructure before making sites available to private developers. "In this manner, unearned windfall profits would accrue to the public through their local authority, not to speculative landowners," Mr Smith said.