Laois Offaly TD says new proposals would cause 'fury and upset' in rural communities

A Laois Offaly TD says a proposed new planning regime would prevent some people building in areas where they grew up and work. 

Deputy Carol Nolan has strongly criticised a series of policy changes relating to rural housing guidelines contained within the First Revision of the National Planning Framework (NPF).

Dep Nolan was speaking after the report recommended that the new NPF should explore how to develop a new national strategic objective to direct new rural housing towards rural towns and villages and to restrict new urban-generated rural housing elsewhere.

“Any decision by Government to endorse a new planning and regulatory regime that would effectively make vast swathes of rural Ireland ‘no-go areas’ even for people who grew up or who work in these localities would bring about ‘the mother of all political battles’ from rural representatives,” said Dep Nolan. 

“These recommendations are a political non-starter that will generate genuine fury and upset in rural communities if they are pushed through and adopted,” she said.

“It is almost inconceivable how distanced this Government and its ‘expert groups’ have become from what ordinary people actually want and how they want to live.”

“Between the nitrate’s debacle and now this, it’s as if they are going out of their way to antagonise rural communities. Farmers cannot survive economically and now their children and grandchildren cannot live near them. Is it out of their minds they have gone or what?” she asked. 

“What is deeply irritating is that the report itself explicitly accepts that fundamental importance of ‘place’ for people and communities in Ireland. But then in the next breath it makes establishing such a connection virtually impossible,” she said. 

https://www.leinsterexpress.ie/news/home/1293808/laois-civil-defence-assist-in-two-rescue-operations-this-weekend.html

Dep Nolan insisted the report would be fiercely resisted.