‘It’s a real killer for one-off housing’
All land holdings on national routes have effectively become sterilised in terms of planning, a Cork County Councillor has claimed.
Speaking at Monday’s meeting of Cork County Council, West Cork Cllr Joe Carroll said more and more people are being told they are wasting their time when looking for planning permission on land requiring access from a national route.
The Fine Gael councillor said he has received a number of complaints from the Clonakilty area from the children of landowners who have been denied planning permission on their parent’s land which would need access to the N71.
“There was a time when the applicant might be allowed access to the N71 or the national route via the parents’ entrance, but that’s being stopped now as well,” he said. A motion presented by Mr Carroll asking that the council write to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) requesting it to review its policy on planning in relation to national routes was passed at the meeting with partywide support from councillors.
“It’s a real killer for one-off housing in rural Ireland.
“If somebody north of Ballydehob can’t build a house on their own land simply because they can’t come out on the road, well, where are we going?” added Cllr Carroll.
The motion was seconded by Fianna Fáil Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy of West Cork who said most of the N71 is “hardly fit enough to be a regional road, not to mind a national route”. He said: “I think it should come down to engineering issues. If the sightlines are there, then the exit should be permitted.”
Independent Cllr Ben Dalton O'Sullivan said: “When we’re trying to keep people living in rural Ireland and keep people living and operating in the family farms, it’s very disappointing to think that a national body essentially has a veto on planning applications which come before Cork County Council.
“We’re the planning authority and we have excellent planners and engineers and if an engineer is satisfied and a planner is satisfied with an application, that’s what should be judged,” added the councillor.
Mallow Fianna Fáil Cllr Gearoid Murphy said: “One size does not fit all when it comes to planning. Road safety is always going to be a concern in any planning application, understandably a national route is going to be an issue, but at the same time it would seem a no-brainer if there is already an entrance.”
Bandon-Kinsale Cllr Gillian Coughlan said: “Where TII are planning to upgrade a road, not only is the road and its margins sterilised, but often a very broad study area can be sterilised also and for a very long time.
She added: “While of course we all want to see our roads upgraded and made safer and made wider in some instances, sometimes these study areas can result in an automatic response from TII more or less negating any panning permission. Sometimes these are just desktop surveys and the ground is not walked.”