COUNTY HALL, 7 October: by Trish Whelan. How to define ‘local need’ took up an hour and a half of time at the September meeting of Kildare County Council. According to county manager Niall Bradley (right) its exact meaning has yet to be defined.
However the interpretation by planners is causing concern to a number of local councillors. Councillor PJ Sheridan said two planning applicants have been asked under ‘additional information’ if they would enter into a Section 38 which would restrict them from selling on to outsiders, only to ‘local need’.
“It’s serious. Who exactly are locals?” the Clane Area councillor asked. “Does it mean those who have worked away and who now want to come home? Are they local and entitled to buy a house or do you have to be continuously living in the area?”
Cllr Jim Reilly concurred saying a new ‘curiosity’ is emerging regarding people processing planning applications in County Kildare. “Obstacles are being put in place to make it far more difficult now for people seeking planning permissions than before. How does a person tell you truthfully they are indigenous if they have no other way of getting a house?” he asked. “And how does the Council tell people they don’t meet the requirement? It’s a concern for communities, for this local authority,” he added.
Cllr Rainsford Hendy said a planner had asked a planning applicant also under ‘additional information’ if his wife owned other property. The man was seeking to build a house on his own farm. He said when people are prepared to build their own house on family land, this type of obstacle is preventing them from doing so and is adding to the 2,000 already on the Council’s housing list.
Cllr Catherine Murphy believed it was a balance between local need and not having gigantic numbers of ‘one-off’ houses in the countryside. She wants the emphasis on helping villages and hamlets to retain schools etc, and not ribbon development.
She asked for a report from the Manager/Planning Department on their interpretation of ‘local need’ and ‘strategic green belt’.
Some 800 ‘one off’ houses were built in Kildare last year which the county manager Niall Bradley said was not a high figure.
Mr Bradley said there is no proposal to change what is current policy on rural housing development. Outside growth areas of Naas, Newbridge and Kilcullen Mr Bradley said any development should be primarily to accommodate ‘local need’.
He said if anyone wants to build 200 houses in a local area without local needs, there is a difficulty involved for the Council. He said planning is ‘not an exact science’ and they should balance the common good with the interests of the people.
Officials were asking councillors to incorporate the Housing Strategy into the Development Plan.
Senator John Dardis agreed with Cllr Murphy that members had ‘gone to a lot of trouble’ to avoid any such ambiguity in wording when determining the County Development Strategy. He said it was ‘becoming increasingly difficult for people to live in their own rural areas’.
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