Cllrs vote for leeway on vexed issue of one-off rural houses

THE often contentious and divisive issue of family members of rural landowners getting planning permission for new homes has been debated at length as part of the proposed County Development Plan.

Local councillors have now insisted that it should not just apply to the sons and daughters of full-time farmers and that any applicant on family-owned land should be eligible for consideration.

But what angered councillors most was Galway County Council’s recommendation to eliminate the reference to ‘a rural link’ to an area and replace it with ‘a rural need’ when it came to a planning application.

However, following a lengthy debate on the issue, it was agreed by councillors that both a housing link and a housing need would be acceptable when it comes to an entitlement for a rural dwelling.

It was also stipulated by the elected members that the applicant need not necessarily be required to apply for planning on an existing full-time family farm – on the basis that such a category of farmers is now getting smaller and smaller.

According to the Draft County Development Plan, it was recommended by the Chief Executive Officer that when it comes to facilitating rural housing, the following should apply:

“The applicants much have a long standing demonstrable economic or rural need through existing and immediate family ties, seeking to develop their first home on the existing family farm holdings.”

It was further recommended that having established a substantiated rural housing need, such persons making an application on a site within an 8km radius of their original family home would be accommodated once documentary evidence was submitted to the Planning Authority to justify the proposed development.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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