Search Results for 'Ian Douglas'

The proposal by a Crossmolina based councillor for Mayo County Council to buy four premises in the town and demolish them to help with traffic congestion in the town was called “architectural vandalism” by a senior council official this week.

The first meeting of the new Planning, Environment and Agriculture Strategic Policy Committee of Mayo County Council saw the long running issue of the county development plan get a long airing between councillors and officials.

Westport area and town councillors have rejected a new core strategy as part of Westport’s development plan, even though the town manager Joe Beirne advised that they take on board variations to the town’s development and environs plan.

Landowners who have had land zoned for housing under the last County Development Plan or Town Environs plans could see their land dezoned in the very near future. The new Regional Planning Guidelines which came into effect last year have to be signed off and all relevant reports completed by October 18 this year. Senior Planner with Mayo County Council Ian Douglas gave a presentation on the tight time-scale that the council had to work with to ensure that all statutory obligations were complied with by the deadline, at the April meeting of the local authority this week.

The elected members of Mayo County Council welcomed the new Draft Renewable Energy Strategy this week, but they acknowledged that a lot of work still has to be done to ensure that Mayo is at the forefront of industry.

County councillors reacted angrily to the fact that lands which have been zoned in the county under the Mayo County Development Plan, may have to be dezoned, under a new Planning and Development Act 2010.

A number of splinters rippled to the surface in the solidity of Mayo County Council’s united front in the face of Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government John Gormley’s directions to change the development plan as adopted by the council on May 6 this year.

Plans to develop a Strategic Development Zone at Ireland West Airport are progressing, a meeting of the Swinford electoral area committee heard this week.

The long running debacle surrounding the Mayo development plan looks to be finally coming to a conclusion. Ian Douglas, senior planner for Mayo County Council told a meeting of the council: “The situation as far I know, is that the Department of Environment has agreed in principle to find some mechanism to finalise the plan that was agreed on March 23, that doesn’t compromise the Minister’s directive.”

From the initial planning stages it has been a long struggle for the Mayo County Development Plan 2008 to 2014 to come to fruition to the satisfaction of the elected members and the Department of Environment and Local Government under the direction of Minister John Gormley. But last Monday the new development plan, which has taken up many hours of planning, discussion, meetings and angry exchanges across the country, finally came to a conclusion when the elected members voted in favour of a new ministerial directive issued by Minister for the Environment John Gormley on September 16 2009, overturning his previous directive of July 11 2008.