In response to the article "Howlin may come under pressure to reverse rezoning" (May 28th). Firstly I would like to compliment the author of the article Mr Frank McDonald, on the accuracy of the article and its broad overview. I feel I am well placed to make these remarks as I am a member of Kildare County Council.
Quite frankly there is no planning logic to what is going on in Kildare at present. We have experienced huge growth in the north of the county particularly over the past 20 years, this huge increase has brought no pro rata increase in central government funding towards running our services. Indeed the number of council workers has continued to decline over the years as the county has grown, so not only is it illogical from a planning point of view it is also financially illogical, and not in the interests of the county.
If we are to develop the north Kildare towns from being just dormitory towns to self sustaining towns we need to balance the housing development with industrial and commercial development. This has been happening in recent years with welcome developments such as Intel and Hewlett Packard. There are limited water and waste water resources and it is a folly to use these for purely housing developments.
I personally feel heartened by the strong public interest shown in the development plan process. I wonder if we had a system like Denmark where land use plans are prepared every four years which is always election year, would more attention be paid to the public outcry? Leixlip Park, Co Kildare.