Fear green areas will be developed

FEARS that green areas in housing estates could be built on unless they are zoned as ‘recreation, amenity and open space’ were expressed by a number of councillors at Louth County Council’s monthly meeting.

Green party Cllr Marianne Butler calling on the council to initiate the process to vary the Dundalk and Environs Development Plan 2009-2015 to allow for the rezoning of green amenity spaces in residential areas from Residential 1 to Recreation Amenity and Open Space.’

She said consistency was needed to protect green areas in housing estates in the interests of proper planning and sustainable development.

Producing a map of the differently zoned areas in Dundalk, she pointed out that the green areas in neighbouring estates could have different zoning, citing Greenwood Drive, where green areas were zoned as ‘recreational and amenity’ while all the open space in Brookwood was zoned Residential 1.

She was supported by Cllr Mark Dearey and Maria Doyle, who said there was a lack of consistency regarding the taking in charge of estates.

Chief Executive Joan Martin ruled out a review of the Development Plan saying that the council had a limited number of staff and there was other statutory work to be done.

‘I do not have the time to give to mapping out every single green space,’ she said, saying she knew from bitter experience in Dundalk what can happen from a mapping error.

She argued that the ‘ by and large’ the open spaces were protected by the conditions of planning applications.

Cllr Conor Keelan expressed his dis- satisfaction at her answer saying there were issues in Dundalk which need to be addressed.

Cllr Mark Dearey was concerned that the current development plan runs until 2019 and was surprised that there hadn’t been more calls for variations. He voiced fears that failure to protect green spaces as development pressure increases could lead to them being exploited and taken over.

It behoved the Council to look after and protect the hard work done by residents groups and to improve amenities for the benefit of all.

They were talking about a limited enough number of areas which were pockmarked around the town.

Cllr Liam Reilly also supported the motion, saying there shouldn’t be two different criteria for open spaces within the development plan.