Ballina Town Council could be on a collision course with the Department of the Environment they were warned when they amended the town development plan this week.
The elected members resolved to amend the development plan to say that the site size for housing on all serviced agricultural land within the town boundary be reduced from 3,000sq metres to 2,000sq metres as long as they are serviced.
Both town engineer Michael O’Grady and town manager Paddy Mahon warned the members that this amendment to the plan would be a big risk for the town council as it could lead to the Department of the Environment ordering stricter planning guidelines for the lands that were contained in the draft development plan. The draft plan had more lenient guidelines included than were imposed by the Minister’s directive in July 2008 to the county plan.
The motion was proposed by Fianna Fáil Councillor Willie Nolan and seconded by his party colleague Cllr Francis McAndrew. Mr Mahon warned the council: “If you do resolve this, it will raise the attention of the department because the changes will be sent to all respective agencies and they could very easily come back with more stringent guidelines on it.”
Fianna Fáil Cllr Johnny O’Malley told the meeting: “We’re talking about serviced lands here, if they fail in planning for another reason then so be it, but it should be changed down.” Planning consultant Stephen Dowds urged the members to think about the long-term implications of this decision and not just in the short-term as it could have a serious effect on attracting industry to the town. His point was backed up by senior engineer for the council Mr Paul Benson who told the meeting that: “If we end up with sporadic development in the town we may never be able to attract a large project like Coca Cola to the town again, they needed a site of 100 acres and if we have development like this all over the place we won’t have the size of site that they would be looking for.”
Town engineer Michael O’Grady also pointed out that it would be very difficult to implement planning in the town and in the long-term taking charge of estates. “It’s OK you say that they have to be on serviced lands, but what do you mean by serviced lands? How far away from the services can they be and come 10 years down the line will we have a load of small developments away from the town centre that will be coming looking to us to have footpaths and lights put in and out of them?”
A counter proposal was put forward by Fine Gael Cllr Michelle Mulherin and seconded by Sinn Féin Cllr Peter Clarke that the council leave the plan the way it is until the Oireachtas Committee that received a delegation from Mayo County Council on the county development plan publish their findings and report, and that the council come back to the issue then. The counter proposal was voted down by six votes to two. Town engineer Michael O’Grady had the last word on the issue at the meeting warning the members that “this is a very big risk”.
