SWAP to contact Minister over zoning by Dargle
A LOCAL pressure group plans to appeal to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to overturn the Bray Municipal District Local Area Plan 2018.
Members of Little Bray community group SWAP (Safety with Alternative Plan) had proposed to move high density development planned for the 3.5 ha corridor of land by the Dargle onto higher ground.
The group has been campaigning against development on the flood plain since 2005.
The original developer of the site, Pizarro, is in receivership, but planning permission remains in place.
Councillors at a Wicklow County Council meeting last week voted against SWAP’s proposed amendment to the area plan, which was put to councillors by Cllr Joe Behan.
The Council Executive told members that a large culvert pipe is included in the plans, with capacity for 50,000 cubic metres of water overflow.
SWAP has said that Minister Eoghan Murphy has the power to issue a directive to overturn a development plan not in line with Government policy. They said that ‘Flood Risk Management and Prevention Guidelines’, published in 2009, state that building on floodplains, even when flood defences are in place, should be avoided.
Councillors voted 18-13 against the proposal to amend the plan and move development up higher. Five of the eight Bray Municipal District councillors voted in favour of rezoning the floodplain on the old Bray Golf Club lands as open space.
SWAP, which has spent the previous three months travelling around the county and met with 27 of the 32 councillors, said they had expected much more support, as per the feedback after their meetings.