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Open Data – Ever wondered where all the applications are?

Colin Broderick — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:44:16 +0000

I’m quiet a big fan of all the nice open data initiatives that are ongoing throughout our country and i’m really impressed with the much larger effort in the uk.

When the Fingal Open Data Hub appeared on the map i thought sweet, i can go do something with their data but I really wasn’t sure at all, until now! Below are all planning applications in Fingal for the last 7 years. Thanks to the power of Google Refine and Fusion Tables its now easier than ever to produce a map.

Little markers on the map is cool and all but you can also make heat maps! Unfortunately this is a rather limited feature in that you have to be zoomed out quiet far for it to work. When you zoom in the red hot spots never appear. See for yourself:

This map has been filtered just to show those that have been decided and to discount those that were either invalid or withdrawn.

Unsuprisingly the areas with the highest concentration of applications are in the main residential areas of Swords, Blanchardstown and the Malahide/Howth area. It would be nice to be able to show only those applications that were granted outline permission or just were granted.

What Next?

Well I have since discovered that if you go over to the Dublinked website the planning application register for the 5 Dublin county councils, although some are for members only. This is fantastic and I can’t wait to get stuck into that data to try and produce a dublin area map showing where the applications all were from year to year.

Unfortunately I hit a snag in that the Dublin City data is badly put together in that the data file is in a comma seperated format but for some reason in the description and the address fields there are commas which are not escaped therefore breaking the data structure when you import. I’ve emailed the lovely people in Maynooth about the problem, I’ve yet to receive a response.

[UPDATE] The Fingal Planning Application data from DubLinked has the decisions, the agents plus much more! Its taking a bit of time to get the details into fusion tables so I can map it fairly easily so stay tuned for an update.

As always!

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Do you like what you have just read? Maybe you are interested in being a guest writer too. Email me at colinb@dt106ers.com

Must Read: Athlone to be developed by the Chinese

Colin Broderick — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 23:58:18 +0000

A friend of mine put me onto this earlier on today. The Chinese are seriously looking at Athlone for a exhibition ground for all the Chinese wares in a bid to break into the European market so investors and buyers do not have to travel across the world to China.

It is well worth a read. Not entirely sure how it will fit in with the population projections of the regional planning guidelines but certainly an interesting project.

I found it quiet difficult to find the Location of the LAP as it is not listed in the LAP section of the either the Westmeath County Council[link] or Athlone Town Council websites, Creggan Local Area Plan 2010 – 2025

I would be very interested in any comments people have on this!

Chinese plans to create a city in Co Westmeath that will act as a trading hub for Europe have met with delight and disbelief in almost equal measure. But the project seems to be advancing stealthily, writes MARY FITZGERALD

IT HAS BEEN the talk of Athlone for almost two years. What began as vague whisperings of Chinese investors scouting the midlands town for a major project soon developed into umpteen rumours, each one grander than the last. Local wags spoke of “Shanghai-on-Shannon” – but there were few facts. “It all appeared quite nebulous until the Taoiseach spoke publicly about it in late June,” says Tadhg Carey, editor of the Westmeath Independent. “That seemed to make it more real in the eyes of people here.”

Brian Cowen’s comments failed to shed much light, though he confirmed he had met some of those involved. “It’s about exploring the potential of this idea,” Cowen said.

A week later the Westmeath Independent published excerpts from a preliminary design statement and an image of what the project might look like. It describes “the greatest commercial and trade centre, tour centre, cultural centre, amusement centre and international conference centre in Europe”. The plans include a convention centre in the style of a Chinese palace, two five-star hotels, apartment complexes, a railway station, two bus terminals, a school, a medical centre, a fire station, a six-hole golf course and a 180m tower topped with a rotating viewing gallery.

The heart of the project would be an exhibition area with up to 20 trade halls, a commercial district and a retail service zone. The promoters say it could draw 20,000 to 35,000 visitors per week.

An editorial in the Westmeath Independent captured local sentiment: “The scale of the reported development is mind boggling . . . Athlone would become a city, almost overnight, and its focus would clearly move eastwards.”

The story caught the attention of the international media. The Guardian drew comparisons between the concept and Beijing’s recent investments in Greece under the headline “Ireland at forefront of Chinese plans to conquer Europe”. It wrote: “Ambitious Chinese companies are pouring money into cash-strapped Ireland and Greece to gain a foothold in Europe.” Before long, local councillors were fielding calls from journalists in England, France, the US, Germany, the Netherlands and China.

“They were curious as to why a small town in the midlands of Ireland could be the focus of something so big,” says Aengus O’Rourke, Fianna Fáil councillor and son of local TD Mary O’Rourke. She met the prospective investors last year through Ken So, who owns Ken’s Oriental Restaurant in the town and is a long-standing family friend. Aengus O’Rourke describes So as a “facilitator” for the investors.

His mother was given a detailed presentation on the project. “They laid the plans out on my living room floor,” she says. “It was all very intriguing and even a little mystifying.”

Her initial response was that it would present a good opportunity, she recalls, until the investors began to talk of who would work there. “They were proposing that all the people employed in the building and the manning of it would be Chinese. I told them I didn’t think that would be acceptable. We would need a mix of Chinese and Irish. They were talking about 12,000 people but, at that time, the plan was very vast, very fanciful. As I understand it, they have now changed their plan.”

She introduced the investors to her son, who was president of the local chamber of commerce. He arranged a meeting with his cousin Conor Lenihan, who was minister for integration. Those at the meeting included a British-based businessman of Chinese origin who works in logistics and food imports, and several Chinese investors who spoke through an interpreter. “The people who came from China are very big players there, employing several thousand people each,” she says. “They work in areas including electronics, home wares, lighting and green energy. They are very serious and very successful businessmen.”

More meetings followed, including with the Taoiseach. The promoters met the Minister of State for Housing and Local Services, Michael Finneran, several times and he visited their Beijing offices during a St Patrick’s Day trip this year. The site of the proposed development, in Athlone’s eastern hinterland, falls within the boundaries of what was designated a developing area by the Department of the Environment in 2008, and therefore comes under Finneran’s brief. (Developing areas are those identified in the National Spatial Strategy as fast-growing and in strategic locations.)

In September, speculation in Athlone intensified after councillors voted to approve a local area plan comprising 302 hectares in Creggan on the town’s eastern fringe. Many noted parallels between it and the Chinese proposal.

“The language used in terms of the objectives of the local area plan is striking,” says Carey. “It talks of developing Creggan as a ‘world-class enterprise, innovation and trading hub’. That is not the sort of language you have in normal local area plans in the midlands.

“There is no denying that the local area plan is a de facto zoning blueprint for development of this scale, size and type. It would appear to the outsider that it has been designed as such, and the similarities are not accidental. That has added to the public interest.”

Attempts to contact the investors and the two local developers who own the site proved unsuccessful. Others involved in different aspects of the plan declined to comment. Many who have met the investors describe the proposed facility as like a permanent trade fair.

“What is being proposed is a massive trading hub, which will allow Chinese companies to display their wares in large exhibition halls for the European market and beyond,” says Finneran. “Buyers will be able to do all their purchasing in one location instead of going to China, where they might have to travel to several cities. This will save them a lot of time and money.”

He says reports in the international media that the complex will include factories are inaccurate. “There is no question of any manufacturing being done here,” he says.

Co-operation with China is nothing new for Athlone, which has forged links over the past decade, mostly under the direction of Prof Ciarán Ó Catháin, president of Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT). “We could see China was fast becoming a global power and we were interested in partnering with some of the leading drivers of that development,” says Prof Ó Catháin. AIT has established exchange programmes with higher-education and research institutions in such cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Dalian. Several hundred Chinese students come to Athlone every year and the institute offers Mandarin classes. Chinese ambassador Liu Biwei has been a frequent visitor to the town.

The Chinese embassy says it had few details of the proposed trade hub, however. “This is a private investment project,” a spokeswoman says. “We have no further information.”

A spokesman for the Taoiseach says the Athlone plan did not feature in discussions on trade and investment when Cowen met visiting Chinese officials in September. The delegation led by Li Changchun, a senior Communist Party of China official, represented the highest-level visit since premier Wen Jiabao came to Ireland in 2004.

Cowen said he had stressed to them that Ireland was ideally placed to become a gateway to Europe for China. “We have been a great gateway for US investment into Europe and I think we can do the same for Chinese investment,” he said, adding that Ireland has important advantages, including being the only English-speaking country in the euro zone. He is to lead a trade mission to China early next year.

Duncan Freeman, who researches EU-China trade and investment at the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies, says the language could be a major pull for the Chinese investors. It is understood they also looked at several other sites across Europe. “Given that English is the international business language, it is an important factor for a lot of Chinese companies,” says Freeman.

“The favourable tax regime is also likely to be a factor, as is the fact that Ireland is seen as having, in terms of regulation, a relatively business-friendly attitude. From the Chinese perspective, this makes it more appealing than some parts of Europe, which are seen as bit too complicated and difficult.”

One persistent rumour in Athlone concerns the number of jobs and how many would be filled by Chinese nationals. “There are reports that if this comes to fruition, some 2,000 of the people employed there would be Chinese,” says James Bannon, a local Fine Gael TD. “I would have reservations about the prospect of a self-contained community separate to Athlone. Jobs for local workers should be a priority. We need more information about what exactly is being proposed. There is an onus on the Government to be more upfront about this. At the moment no one really seems to know what is happening.”

That could all change soon. It is understood that a formal planning application is to be lodged with Westmeath County Council early next month.

Such is the scale of the proposal, however, that many in the town remain sceptical. “Some people’s attitude is we’ll believe it when we see it,” says Aengus O’Rourke. “It’s that big.”

Why China is investing in Europe

When the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, addressed the EU-China business summit in Brussels last month, he mixed honeyed words with pointed reminders of how Europe’s financial crisis had changed the parameters of its relationship with Beijing.

After years of focusing its investment efforts on Asia and Africa, China has set its sights on Europe, wooing troubled euro zone economies with deals worth billions.

Wen said the EU is now China’s largest partner in trade and investment, ahead of the US and Japan. He spoke of how Beijing had acted as a “friend” by buying bonds and helping Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy in “their most difficult time”. His words echoed those of the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, after a meeting with Li Changchun, a senior Chinese official, in September. He “was very clear that China would be as helpful as it can to a friend like Ireland in the difficult times we have”, he said.

Some of Beijings biggest deals have been in debt-ridden Greece and Italy. One allows Cosco, China’s state-run shipping firm, to turn the Greek port of Piraeus, Europe’s largest for passengers, into a regional entry point for Chinese goods. Cosco has similar plans to expand the port at Naples. There is talk of Chinese money being funnelled into Greek shipbuilding and telecommunications, as well as infrastructure projects including roads, railways and airports in eastern and southern Europe. Last year the China Overseas Engineering Group was accused of undercutting European bids when it landed a contract to build a highway in Poland.

“The slide of the euro has slashed business operation costs in Europe and has made investing there much more attractive to Chinese businesses, Zhou Jizhong, a professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told Asia Times earlier this year.

The IrishTimes

An Taisce urges council to ‘dezone’ Dunleer land

Colin Broderick — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:35:06 +0000

Extract of Land Use map from the Draft Dunleer Local Area Plan 2010 – 2016

When you look at the Phasing Map for the release of the residential zoned land, it seems to ignore the area to the south of the centre of Dunleer. Also I am not sure why the big blob of residential land is dropped into the plan on the eastern side. When I read up on Dubleer a bit more I will post a more detailed post. For now I will leave you with Frank McDonalds piece from Mondays IrishTimes:

FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor

AN TAISCE has called on Louth County Council to “dezone” large areas of land outside the village of Dunleer designated for residential or commercial development in a 2003 plan.

Quoting from the recent “A Haunted Landscape” report by the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis at NUI Maynooth, An Taisce endorsed its finding that local plans had been “driven by the demands of local people, developers and speculators”.

The submission compiled by Gerry Crilly, a Dunleer-based member of the conservation body’s national council, described the mid-Louth village as “a microcosm of the national crisis that Ireland now finds itself in” following the property crash.

According to the county council, Dunleer’s 29 hectares (74 acres) of undeveloped residential and commercial zoned lands “greatly exceeds” what is required. If all of it was developed, it would more than double the population to at least 4,000.

The current population is estimated at between 1,600 and 1,800, and An Taisce said future population growth “may not occur within the next six years due to the rise in emigration, increasing unemployment and no net immigration into Ireland”.

It pointed to a large area of land zoned commercial at Woodlands, southwest of Dunleer, saying it was distant from the village centre and had already been the subject of three refusals for large-scale commercial developments.

Its submission said that all zoned land outside the the “natural boundaries” of Dunleer, which it identified as the M1 motorway to the west and the railway line to the east, should now be dezoned in order to promote more sustainable development.

It also noted that An Taisce had successfully appealed three decisions by the council to grant planning permission for proposed developments adjacent to the disused railway station on the basis that these schemes would “prejudice” its reopening.

Upholding these appeals, An Bord Pleanála said it was “not satisfied that the development of the site, in the manner that has been proposed, would allow for the station to be reopened or for the land, to be developed in a comprehensive manner”.

Although the Louth County Development Plan adopted in 2003 had a policy “to seek the reopening of Dunleer railway station”, An Taisce complained that this was not explicit in the latest plan and said it should be stated in “clear and unambiguous” terms.

It is also seeking a “clear policy” by the council not to zone “low-lying lands” in the floodplain of White River as part of a “proactive flood prevention policy”. Instead, it wants to see these lands designated as an “amenity buffer zone” for the village.

Calling for a strategic environmental assessment of the draft local plan, An Taisce said all previous development zonings along the river should be reconsidered due to “future vulnerability to increased flood risk”, particularly during the winter.

It also wants to see a “regional heritage park” developed in Dunleer, centred on a surviving Norman motte south of the village.

IrishTimes

Kilkenny County Council – Proposed Alterations to the Record of Protected Structures

Colin Broderick — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:33:32 +0000

The announcement can be found at the following link along with the details: Proposed Additions and Deletions from the Record of Protected Structures

Particulars of the proposed additions and deletions may be inspected at the Planning Office, Kilkenny County Council, County Hall, John Street, Kilkenny and at the Castlecomer, Thomastown, Callan and Newrath Area Offices for a six week period from the 30th July 2010 to the 10th September 2010, inclusive, during office hours 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm, Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays).

During this period any person may make a written submission or observation in writing to the
Planning Authority, County Hall, John Street, Kilkenny
or
by email to aine.doyle@kilkennycoco.ie, on or before the 10th September 2010,
with respect to the proposed additions to and deletions from the Record of Protected Structures and such observations will be taken into consideration before the making of these additions.

Developers to face high-rise curbs as council agrees plan

Colin Broderick — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:00:34 +0000

DEVELOPERS ARE facing severe restrictions on the construction of high-rise buildings in Dublin city following the introduction of the new Dublin City Development Plan next year.

City councillors last night agreed to ban the construction of buildings above 28m (92ft) – about half the height of Liberty Hall – unless a statutory plan called a Local Area Plan (Lap) was drafted for the area in question. Such a plan could take several years to develop.

This would block the construction of any further high-rise or even medium-rise buildings in areas previously earmarked by the council for tall buildings such as the Docklands, Heuston and Connolly stations and George’s Quay.

The Lap, which functions as a development plan specific to a particular area, would have to specify maximum building heights allowed. Until a local area plan was approved all developments would have to remain low rise. Councillors last night agreed to define low rise as up to six storeys in relation to residential buildings and seven storeys for office buildings or a maximum height of less than 28m.

The development of Laps has been a fraught process within the council. Attempts were made over several years to introduce a LAP for Ballsbridge but the plan fell apart when agreement could not be reached on whether to allow a “landmark” tall building.

The amendment to the draft development plan in relation to the development of Laps was agreed last night as a compromise motion. Several councillors had wanted caps on height, and some motions would have seen high rise defined as under 30m.

However the agreed amendment, by effectively deferring any decision on maximum heights, makes the city development plan worthless as a guide to developers as to where applications for tall building would be considered.

The draft plan will be released for a further round of consultation before being formally agreed by councillors later this year.

City manager John Tierney in his report to councillors on the plan had warned putting restrictive caps on heights would have “severe repercussions for the city’s competitiveness”.

IrishTimes

Dublin height focus of planning debate

Colin Broderick — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:30:41 +0000

Decisions made this week by Dublin city councillors will determine the height and scale of future developments, writes FRANK MACDONALD

WHETHER NEW buildings in Dublin should be relatively high or low has become the most contentious issue confronting councillors as they begin a series of special meetings today to deal with the draft Dublin City Development Plan 2011-2017.

On the one hand, An Taisce maintains the current draft prepared by city planners “will fuel a future splurge of land speculation and undermine decades of the planning control that has maintained Dublin as a historic low-rise major European city”.

On the other, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has warned that attempts by councillors to cap building heights “would result in the relocation of office and other commercial development outside Dublin . . . and act as a serious deterrent to urban regeneration”.

Maybe not what they are aiming for but it could happen!

At issue is what constitutes a “high-rise” building. According to the planners, it would be 16 storeys or more, with “medium-rise” defined as eight to 16 storeys and “low-rise” as up to eight storeys – roughly double the prevailing building height in the core of the city.

Several councillors are seeking to reinstate a key paragraph in the current city plan that is omitted from the draft.

This states that the council “acknowledges the intrinsic quality of Dublin as a low- to medium-rise city and considers that it should predominantly remain so.

“Taller building clusters . . . are only likely to be achieved in the Docklands, at Heuston and in the larger predominantly non-residential key developing areas, where there is good public transport links and sites of sufficient size to create their own character.”

According to the planners, continuing with this policy “would seriously undermine the strategic approach to developing areas” such as Grangegorman and the zones around Connolly Station and Tara Street station, where further high-rise development is envisaged.

The planners say they have “no objection” to a more specific definition of low-rise “provided it does not result in a policy cap of 18m (six-storey residential or four-storey office) over the city, as several of the amendments tabled by councillors are now seeking to do.

“The essential proposition in these motions is that . . . the definition of high should be reduced from 50m to 30m with mid-rise defined as 18m to 30m; and all the remaining areas of the city to be retained at a maximum height of 18m”, the manager’s report says.

This “would have severe repercussions for the city in relation to economic renewal and competitiveness”, it warns, adding that the “inevitable result would be a flight of office development” to surrounding local authority areas and “less rates income”.

The planners also maintain that a 30m-cap on medium-rise buildings would “inevitably result in bulky ‘groundscapers’ rather than more elegant buildings such as Liberty Hall” (now planned to be demolished), saying this would “undermine the character of the city”. They say a six-storey cap on residential development would also “undermine the promotion of vibrant new, mixed-use neighbourhoods”, such as Herberton (built on the site of Fatima Mansions), where the height ranges from three to eight storeys.

An amendment by some councillors seeking an “urban design statement” on all proposals two storeys higher than existing buildings in the vicinity is “considered unduly onerous” by the planners, given the “numerous safeguards” incorporated in the draft plan.

Their drive for more height and density in the city is strongly endorsed by the CIF.

Its director of planning, Hubert Fitzpatrick, said if proposed caps were imposed in certain areas, “investment . . . will go elsewhere, representing a significant opportunity cost for the entire economy”.

Limits on the height of apartment buildings would “push developments away from areas that have seen substantial investment in public transportation and related physical and social infrastructure”, resulting in “further urban sprawl and continued underdevelopment”.

But An Taisce’s heritage officer, Ian Lumley, said it was clear that the city council’s management was “pushing through” a new Draft Development Plan for adoption by elected councillors, intended to fuel a future property boom by “scrapping” existing controls on height.

“Amid the general fiasco that has characterised Irish planning over the last 60 years, there was at least one achievement of maintaining Dublin as one of Europe’s low-rise major historic cities”, he said.

For whatever reason, this was to be “disregarded” by the draft plan.

“Rather that providing clarity, the plan is going to create years of planning rows and appeals to An Bord Pleanála if a new boom is generated,” he said.

“It would only take a few badly sited out-of-scale buildings to irrevocably damage the city’s irreplaceable character.”

Irish Times

Regional development key to growth in all areas of economy, report states

Colin Broderick — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:07:56 +0000

DEVELOPING THE regions will benefit all sectors of the economy and should not be viewed as an isolated or sectoral issue, a Western Development Commission (WDC) report states.

The full potential of the State’s less developed regions is not being realised, leading to a “waste of talent and opportunity”, according to the commission study, which is due to be published tomorrow.

It recommends that an “identifiable single figure at national level” is required to implement an effective co-ordinating role in regional development.

Recent research by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) shows that nurturing growth in these less developed areas will bring about national growth, Dr Helen McHenry, WDC policy analyst and author of the study, says.

Two OECD papers published last year found that while leading regions were important in driving national economies, lagging regions also made a strong contribution.

“Regional policy is not a zero sum game where growth in one region is at the expense of another,” Dr McHenry says.

“The aim of regional policy should be to maximise national output by assisting and encouraging each individual region to reach their growth potential,” she said, and she noted that “the market does not achieve this alone”.

Regional policy has been suffering from “unclear management at national level”, the commission report finds, due to a mixture of “broad” and “narrow” approaches, including the National Spatial Strategy and the Clár programme.

The report cites Finland as a case study in strong regional development, and recommends that regional policy in Ireland needs to be co-ordinated by an identifiable single figure at national level.

In Finland, a state with a similar population to Ireland living in a significantly larger land area, regionalisation of university education was found to be a very efficient means of spreading development.

Special programmes based on the “know-how” and skill-base of smaller urban centres also played an important role, while early infrastructural improvement policies had “long lasting positive effects” in less developed regions of Finland.

In its report Why Care About the Regions? A New Approach to Regional Policy , the commission recommends that a focused and targeted policy here should extend beyond transport and infrastructure. It also says that regional policy in the future must have a “more subtle understanding of issues such as environmental sustainability, individual welfare or happiness, and their association with economic and social development”.

It believes investment in infrastructure must be maintained and combined with investment in the three “Es” – enterprise, employment and education, along with a “drive to increase innovation”.

It says the OECD found that when these elements worked together, they created growth.

“There is often a presumption that some regions have more ‘potential’ than others,” Dr McHenry says. “This shouldn’t be used to justify concentration of investment.” She adds: “Concentrating resources in one place is not enough to bring about sustained national growth. Harnessing the assets of both rural and urban regions will bring the greatest overall benefit.”

The commission is the statutory body promoting economic and social development in counties Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway and Clare.

Its abolition was recommended in the McCarthy report on expenditure, and it has had its investment fund cut dramatically.

The Council for the West has urged its retention.

IrishTimes

Gorey plan to ‘dezone’ over 250 acres

Colin Broderick — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:29:28 +0000

It will be interesting to see how much opposition will be put up against the de-zoning. Looking forward to reading the Draft Gorey Development Plan, a summary will be provided here at dt106ers.com.

MORE THAN 250 acres of land zoned for residential or commercial development around Gorey, Co Wexford, in 2002 is to be “dezoned” under a new local area plan.

This is in line with advice that local authorities have received from the Department of the Environment that they should take account of new planning legislation, currently before the Oireachtas, that provides for more “sustainable” land use zoning.

The land proposed for dezoning under a plan adopted by councillors last Friday, includes 36 acres owned by the family of former Wexford county councillor Lorcan Allen (Fianna Fáil), adjoining the new Gorey bypass.

It was advertised for sale as a “superb development holding” in October 2006.

So much land was zoned for residential development in the 2002 plan that it could have accommodated a sixfold increase in the town’s population. Even then, up to 70 per cent of the new residents were coming from Dublin.

The population of Gorey has grown from about 4,500 a decade ago to nearly 8,000. It is home to the country’s largest second-level school, with over 1,600 students. A new second-level school has been approved and is scheduled to open in 2012.

The controversial 2002 plan was primarily promoted by Mr Allen and Michael D’Arcy (Fine Gael) and supported by councillors Joe Murphy (Fianna Fáil) and Deirdre Bolger (Fine Gael). Some of the land rezoned for residential development was owned by Ms Bolger’s husband’s firm, J Bolger and Co.

Mr Allen and Mr D’Arcy also sponsored the proposed rezoning of Gorey’s 11-acre showgrounds, of which they were both trustees at the time. But this proposal was overturned in response to public protests, led by dissident Fianna Fáil town councillor Malcolm Byrne.

Formerly the venue of the Gorey Agricultural Show, the land was given to the public by the Land Commission in 1937 for sporting and recreational uses. It has been acquired by Wexford County Council for the development of community and sporting facilities.

None of the four councillors involved in adopting the 2002 plan are still members of the council. Three of the new five-member Gorey district committee, which took the decisions to dezone land, were elected for the first time last year. They include Cllr Byrne.

“I would estimate that over a third of the new residential rezoning from 2002 has been removed,” he said. “There are still over 200 acres of land zoned as residential, all close to the town, and this is more than adequate to meet likely future needs this decade. It is, in my view, a much more balanced plan than that adopted in 2002. There is significant additional zoning for community and educational facilities and the main street is properly recognised as the social and economic heart of the town.

“I think that we have provided for very balanced and sustainable development of Gorey and will preserve the character of the town – although I have no doubt we will come under pressure from landowners to rezone in the coming weeks.”

The draft Gorey plan will go on public display within a fortnight.

A new development plan for nearby Courtown and Riverchapel is also being prepared.

IrishTimes

Waterford County Draft Development Plan 2011 – 2017

Colin Broderick — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:31:40 +0000

Waterford Draft County Development Plan 2011 – 2017 and associated documents may be inspected, at the Planning Department, Civic Offices, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford; Civic Offices, Tramore, Lismore and Kilmacthomas and at all branches of the Waterford County Libraries during normal opening hours from Monday 22nd February, 2010 to Tuesday 4th May, 2010.

Written Submissions or Observations regarding the Draft Plan should be sent to the Development Plan Review, Planning Department, Waterford County Council, Civic Offices, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. or can be emailed by logging on to waterfordcoco.ieand following the appropriate link before 5.00 p.m. Tuesday 4th May, 2010

[IT] Gormley tells council to reconsider plans

Colin Broderick — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:03:00 +0000

MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has told Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to reconsider plans to rezone land in south Dublin as part of its county development plan or he may make a direction forcing it to do so.

Councillors voted to accept a motion to rezone the Park Village, Carrickmines, close to the N11 motorway, to district retail centre status despite the opposition of county manager Owen Keegan.

The motion was tabled by Fine Gael councillor Tom Joyce and Fianna Fáil councillor John Byrne and passed in November by a majority of two. Some councillors complained of excessive lobbying before the vote. District retail centre status increases the space available for retail development to 25,000square metres, 6,000 more than the site’s current zoning of neighbourhood centre.

The Park Village is being developed by Park Developments Ltd. Mr Gormley wrote to the council to express his concerns about the rezoning last year. A further letter was sent to the council last Friday as part of the final consultation phase for the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan 2010-2016.

In it, the Department of the Environment on behalf of Mr Gormley expressed the Minister’s “serious concern that the council had failed to act on his previous advice and recommendation”.

The rezoning did not accord with the “hierarchy of retail centres in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown”, in the Greater Dublin Area Retail Strategy agreed by all planning authorities. The strategy would be “seriously compromised and undermined” if the rezoning went ahead. The rezoning would attract significant amounts of car-based traffic.

The department asked the council to indicate what steps it intended to take to address the Minister’s concerns.

“Failing a satisfactory response, the Minister will have to strongly consider whether further action is warranted, including the use of powers of direction under the Planning and Development Acts,” the letter said. The powers allow the Minister to order the council not to rezone lands.