Particularly busy time ahead for the planning section

COUNCILLORS heard at last week’s Municipal District meeting that the planning section will have a particularly busy time ahead.

Anyone who applied for planning after February 21 has fallen into the time line freeze period, which only started up again on May 25. Now, the five weeks of consideration will be given to any application received from March 29 also.

It is planned that all affected will have a decision by July 20 – a final window ends on June 29 and July 20 is five weeks later.

Councillor Willie Kavanagh asked about the cause of the high refusal rate in the district and was told that, with Gorey having pressure from competing with Wicklow and south Dublin, some applications don’t comply with the County Development Plan.

Niamh Lennon from planning said that she would go through any queries the councillors have individually, including one from Cllr Mary Farrell about how public opinion and consultation could be addressed at this time

Ms Lennon told councillors about a Strategic Housing application made directly to An Bord Pleanala for 383 dwellings in Clonattin village, highlighting that the Bord would bring it to the councillors for comment but, ultimately, the decision would rest with the Bord.

Cllr Anthony Donohoe asked if the application would consider the town plan and was told it would, while Cllr Joe Sullivan said that if it goes ahead, it should be welcomed.

Cllr Donohoe and Niamh Lennon both highlighted that the road connection issue at the site must be regarded in the submission made.

Cllr Pip Breen asked how this application might compare to the permission for 390 houses at the Old Mushroom Factory site. He said he was concerned about high density and the idea of ‘houses on top of one another’ in the town.

Ms Lennon said that planning doesn’t have a role if those at the Old Mushroom site have permission and haven’t started the build, but that urban density standards are set nationally.

‘We have to have regard for the guidelines. Gorey is a town that will fall under that, we have to fall in line, we have a housing crisis and we have to be sustainable,’ she said.

‘We always look for higher density to be of very good design and high quality, good layouts but it has been set out that densities need to increase to allow for more houses on the market and to make them more economically viable.

‘Unless something changes, that’s the density that’s required and An Bord Pleanala will stick to that. We can’t pick our own densities, we have to follow what the national guidelines say,’ Ms Lennon said.

On the topic of derelict sites, Cllr Fionntán O Súilleabhain highlighted a site in Hollyfort that is on the list. Describing it as an eyesore, he asked for enforcement on it.

Cllr Joe Sullivan said that the site has been on the agenda for six years now.

‘The rights and the wrongs are not what we’re debating. What we are discussing here is that nothing has been done in any direction,’ he said.