Sir, – One-off rural housing is the ultimate expression of suburban values. You drive everywhere: to go to work, to get to school, to shop, to socialise, to travel to the nearest forest park to walk (you wouldn’t walk locally with all those SUVs barrelling down the narrow country lanes).
In the main, people buying or building one-off ex-urban houses work in the nearest city or large town, send their kids to school there and shop and socialise there. If you map where these houses are being built, you will find that they are mostly within a short commute of a regional population centre. These homes represent ultra low-density suburbanisation, the very antithesis of rural regeneration.
If you want a housing policy to aid rural regeneration then build estates in villages and small towns where the residents will soon enjoy the convenience of walking to local shops, schools and pubs and integrate in the community, even if they drive to work elsewhere. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN HALPIN,
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Annacotty,
Co Limerick.
