Planners are urged to favour natives

December 1994

COUNTY WICKLOW’S planners are being urged to discriminate in favour of native applicants when they review the county development plan over the next 12 months.

The call came as councillors described the ‘nightmare’ facing Wicklow people who want to build a home in their native county.

Cllr Johnny Fox said that in most cases native applicants could expect to wait a year before a final decision was made on their application.

‘I will not be voting for any plan unless it is specific that native applicants get special consideration,’ Cllr Fox told Monday’s meeting of the County Council.

In support, Cllr Tommy Cullen (Lab) called for a special clause to be included in the development plan for native applicants.

‘What is happening is that people from Dublin with money for a second home are displacing natives in West Wicklow,’ he claimed.

He further claimed that staff levels in the planning office were inadequate and subsequently applicants were getting letters

Seeking further information just days before the two-month deadline had expired and they were expecting to receive the planners’ decision.

Cllr Jim Ruttle (Ind) said the planners did not seem to realise that planning permission to a person who had been given a site by a parent or relative often meant the difference between having a home and not having one as house prices were beyond their reach.