An Irish Planning Students Blog

FINGAL’S new County Development Plan must be agreed by April 2011 with the first draft expected to go on public display next March.

Councillors met last week to begin the next phase of the preparation of the Plan following on from the initial round of public consultation during the summer.

Public representatives play an important role at this stage as they provide policy direction to the manager in drawing up the new Plan, which will set out the local authority’s principle objectives from 2011 to 2017.

The next key dates are January, February and early March next year when councillors will meet to consider the Manager’s draft, which will then go on public display.

Submissions will then be made from the public and councillors will meet to consider making amendments to the plan. County Manager David O’Connor said some 553 submissions were received from the public in the initial round of consultation, down from over 1,000 from the previous plan. Almost one in five submissions related to transportation issues, followed by concerns about community, recreation and open space. Mr O’Connor has made four general recommendations in relation to the Plan covering the promotion of sustainable development, minimising climate change, contributing to social inclusion and integrating high quality design to its work.

It is the aim of the council to realise the long-term Swords Strategic vision and to consolidate the growth of Balbriggan and Blanchardstown.

It is also the manager’s aim to consolidate growth and protect the identity of the other town’s around the region, as well as safeguarding the development of Dublin Airport. Mr O’Connor said it was estimated that the population was now tipping the quarter of a million mark.

Source: Fingal-Independent

Before the end of the week i hope to have a post written on the development plan process for those who are unsure how it works and also the time limits involved in the action of preparing a new development plan.

A LONG-awaited local area plan for Rivermeade in St Margaret’s will be completed by the middle of next year, according to Fingal County Council.

Cllr Tom Kelleher (Lab) put a motion to a meeting of the Balbriggan/Swords Area Committee last week asking for an update on the RV1 or rural village plan. The council’s planning department said that a number of issues identified in December of last year have delayed the plan.

Some of those issues relate to the need to examine the ecological impacts of development in the area on the Broadmeadows Estuary through the river Ward which traverses Rivermeade.

The limited capacity

of Swords Wastewater Treatment Plant which services the area is also an issue and the possibility of increasing flooding of the Ward River.

The location of the proposed Swords Western Ring Road also had to be looked at as part of the plan.

The council says to progress the local area plan for Rivermeade fully, the results of the Fingal East Meath Flood Risk Assessment Management Study FRAM), is required.

Interim results from the study have been delayed, but are now due in November 2009.

The planning department hope that, pending those results and of its own ‘appropriate assessment’ of the risk to Broadmeadows Estuary, the plan will be completed by early to mid 2010.

Source: Fingal Independent