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Harbour works continue in Inishowen  06.10.08

by Damian Dowds, Inishowen Independent

DONEGAL councillors and planning officials will meet within the next month to discuss big changes to the county development plan that will have far-reaching consequences for local people seeking planning permission to build homes in rural and suburban areas.
“The development plan was adopted in August 2006 and the problems started arising the very next month,” said Fianna Fáil party whip Cllr Francis Conaghan. “Local people who want to live locally and settle in their community should be allowed to do so. The last thing we want is for them to get a slap in the face from the planning office.”
“More flexibility is now built into it and I expect to see a more common sense approach. It’s a positive conclusion to two year’s hard work in addressing the problems that arose.”
In some instances council planners took a very narrow interpretation of the terms of the development plan, but the rules regarding so called ribbon development, backland development, ties to a local area and the design guide have been relaxed.
“This was an especially emotive issue in Inishowen and the Inishowen councillors worked as a team to ensure that these changes were made so that the different patterns of rural settlement that exist within the county, and indeed within the peninsula, can be accommodated,” said Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Mac Lochlainn.
“Councillors spoke up strongly for local people seeking to live in their own area,” said Fine Gael Cllr Bernard McGuinness. “At the meeting with planners we will be outlining that it is our interpretation of what the plan means that counts, not theirs. I’m confident that local people will be better accommodated under the new regime.”
Cllr McGuinness also welcomed the adoption of a policy to permit the development of small council owned housing schemes on lands within one kilometre of community facilities such as schools and churches.
“This will help sustain and develop local communities,” Cllr McGuinness said, adding that the council needed to build small social and affordable housing developments in rural areas, rather than allocating homes to them in towns only.
The council also rejected a proposal to increase the number of holiday homes permitted in certain local areas from 20% to 30%. “This proposal should never have been tabled in the first place,” said Cllr Mac Lochlainn. “We argued that the public was satisfied with the existing 20% quota and there was no appetite to change it.”
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