The elected members of Mayo County Council made a number of changes to the draft Mayo County Development Plan at a mammoth meeting that took place on Tuesday afternoon.
The major change to the proposed development plan put before them was to reject a proposal that would have prohibited development on all roads across the county that lead to a national primary or secondary road.
Speaking to the Mayo Advertiser this week after the meeting, Fianna Fáil councillor Al McDonnell, who was part of a cross-party group that studied the draft plan and put together a list of amendments to it, said: "The major alteration we made to the draft plan was in relation to a part, to which in all intents and purposes, would have prohibited all developments leading to national roads - which would have taken out a huge area of the county.
"We have changed that and we do accept there has to be certain restrictions regarding direct access on national roads; we accept that you can’t have direct access every 20 yards on a national road.
"But we also said exceptions can be made on social or economic grounds, you have to have exceptions; you could have have someone living on their own or a couple who need support and help from family; and provision has to be there to accommodate that kind of situation."
The Planning Regulator and Transport Infrastructure Ireland will be informed of the changes made by the councillors, he explained saying: “They will be monitoring the situation and what happens now, when we make material changes to the submissions made on the manager's report, they are notified in the first week that we are making material changes to some of their recommendations and they will get to respond to it.
“Another thing is that the Planning Regulator is recommending that we change the population ratios, from rural to urban from the current 70/30 to 60/40, which means that there would be serious internal migration from rural to urban, which we will seriously oppose."
Fine Gael councillor Jaralth Munnelly also outlined a number of changes made to the plan in the area of housing, saying: "Amongst the many amendments proposed by Fine Gael, a number were aimed specifically at improving housing supply and housing opportunities for the people of Mayo, including: Modular Buildings - greater consideration of the use of modular buildings as a permanent housing solution, to offer greater variety of construction options to potential homeowners and builders (provided the quality of housing meets standards ). Serviced Sites – where Mayo County Council would provide, at an affordable cost, serviced sites in towns on council owned land, or council acquired land. These sites, which would have all services (water, sewerage, electricity, broadband ) available, would be sold at an affordable price to people to build their own home (eg first time buyers, or families trading up from a starter home, etc ). House Types – providing a better mix of housing in new developments, offering greater variety of house types (from larger detached houses, 3 bed houses, to smaller 2 bed units ) to cater for all requirements to meet the needs of the whole community. Multigenerational Housing – facilitating housing solutions for families where there is a desire to adapt (or build new ) a house to cater for more than one generation living in comfort in the same house.
Commenting after the meeting, Cllr Munnelly said that he and his colleagues had spent a lot of time trying to improve the draft plan for people who want to own their own home.
“Housing is the number one issue in this county. The county development plan should help people across the county to own their own home. So some of these proposals made by my colleagues and I are focused on making planning easier, making sites available, or reducing costs.”
The Fine Gael councillor explained that the proposals were supported unanimously at the meeting, and he is confident that these objectives will be included in the final plan, to be finalised later in the year.
Cllr Munnelly also outlined that there has been a lot of debate during the development plan meetings about the importance of people from rural areas being able to get planning permission in their locality, an issue that is strongly supported by Fine Gael.
In conclusion, Cllr Munnelly acknowledged that there are many challenges facing people trying to buy their own home in Mayo today, but said he feels that these changes to the development plan will go some way to improving the issue.
“It is small steps, but I think these proposals will help more people to become home owners. If I could focus on one of the proposal in particular, the serviced sites proposal – because of this proposal there is now an onus on Mayo County Council to put money behind this idea, and to make a start this year to develop a number of pilot sites across the county. This is something that my colleagues and I in Fine Gael will be seeking support for at budget time, later this year."
Following the decision of councillors to approve (with amendments ) the manager's report and draft plan, the amended draft will be placed on public display in a number of weeks, where public comment will be invited.
