Last year we visited Ireland and toured the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle peninsular, and then up to Galway and Connemara. In so many beautiful places one thing that stuck me was that so often the skyline was littered with houses. The Irish love to paint their houses, indeed it seems almost obligatory. But this does mean that when ill positioned they so easily spoil beautiful countryside. And so many are ill positioned.
Ireland’s planning regulations are much less stringent that those in the UK and this ruin of beautiful areas of countryside is the consequence. Once housing has been established, it will never be removed.
The government’s proposed new framework on planning regulations streamlines more than 1,000 pages of policy into just 52. One important change is to put decisions into the hands of new local groups. But a YouGov poll, commissioned by the National Trust, found that few people were aware of the government’s proposals to dilute the planning laws radically, and even fewer had the inclination to address planning issues in their local area. Developers will, for sure, find it easier to pressure these new local groups to approve their plans. The well practiced planning departments in local government already know how developers will pester until they get what they want.
