Planning block squeezing the life out of rural towns

Rural schools in County Galway will shut their doors in the next ten to 15 years because of the failure of applicants to obtain planning permission in country locations.

And it has been claimed that proximity to environmentally sensitive areas was being used by county planners to refuse permission – despite the applicants paying anything between €6,000 and €7,000 to prepare applications.

Members of Galway County Council were extremely critical of the planning process with many of them saying that young couples were finding it very difficult to obtain planning permission in rural parts and this was wrong.

According to Cllr Joe Byrne from Kinvara, it was only a matter of time that rural schools would close down because there will be no children in rural areas to attend them.

“It has reached ridiculous proportions in that every site within a 15 mile radius of a special area of conservation hasn’t a prayer of getting planning. There is no doubt that we will be closing down rural schools in time.

“There is no balance when it comes to planning in Galway. Across the border in Clare there is a completely different system and one the favours rural housing. In Galway it is a completely different story,” Cllr Byrne added.

The matter was raised by Cllr Sean Ó Tuairisg who said that young people could not get planning in Connemara and there seemed to be an emphasis to get people to live in Galway city or some of the bigger towns.

“The young people will have no choice but to leave if the Government instructs that no planning permission is granted in Connemara. The situation seriously needs to be looked at and especially when it comes to the coast road where planning is badly required,” Cllr Ó Tuairisg added.

According to Cllr Tom Welby it was harder and harder to get planning with applicants paying thousands of euro in order to put together a planning application. “There are so many reports now required that it is getting prohibitive,” he remarked.

Tuam’s Cllr Karey McHugh said that several of her friends and family were put off submitting a planning application because of the high cost involved.

“They are required to spend thousands and that is before a block is even laid. It has meant that many people are resigned to renting for the rest of their lives,” she added.

Councillors were discussing the difficulty in getting pre-planning meetings with Galway County Council but they were told that they had just four planners at their disposal and the local authority’s budget could not stretch to employing any more.

Director of Services Catherine McConnell told the meeting that County Galway had a very high level of European designation of environmentally sensitive areas but added that of the 530 applications received in the past year 499 were successful so she refuted the suggestion that the vast majority of planning applications were failing to succeed.