By any measurement the compiling of the Meath County Development plan has been extraordinary

PAUL MURPHY

After more than 100 hours of debate by councillors and hundreds more hours of work by Council staff the Meath County Development Plan is inching towards the finishing line and, barring hiccups, should come into force in six weeks time.

The plan is meant to put a shape on the county’s development over the next six years and 40 councillors met over three days last week to receive the Council chief executive’s report on material amendments to the plan. At 1.10pm last Wednesday the councillors voted to adopt the plan, bringing to an end a saga that was stretched out by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Councillors’ deliberations on the draft plan went on from November last year to March of this year, interrupted by the need to implement social distancing rules and guidelines. This meant that while councillors could meet in person for the start of deliberations on the draft plan, they were often forced onto Zoom.

Last week’s final meeting to adopt the plan took place both in the Solstice Theatre and by virtual means. By any measurement, the compiling of this particular plan has been extraordinary. In normal times the plan could have been expected to be finished by April this year but progress has been tortuous because of the pandemic. Extraordinary, too, has been the general public’s interest in the planning process – over 2,500 individuals and groups made submissions on the draft plan.

Possible obstacles to the implementation of the plan are lurking – the Office of the Planning Regulator may intervene to upset Meath’s county councillors’ determination to continue to allow the building of one-off houses in rural areas under the terms of the old County Development Plan. An initial proposal that would require at least 15 acres of land in order to get planning permission in some parts of the county was swiftly torpedoed by councillors. The regulator’s appointment in 2018 meant that he has oversight of all local authority and regional assembly forward planning, including zoning decisions. He has the power to advise the Minister on whether a plan made by a local authority conflicts with national policy and to recommend that the Minister make directions where a plan does not meet with national policy.

With a Housing Minister under the cosh to provide 33,000 homes every year up to 2030, and with a general election due by February 2025, a political decision will have to be taken as to whether a strong rural lobby pressing for homes will be taken on. Councillors are already saying that many families are living in intolerable conditions of overcrowding (plus the effects of Covid) because of the shortage of houses.

At the end of last week’s deliberations on the Development Plan, Cathaoirleach Cllr Sean Drew was lavish in his praise for the councillors but particularly for the council staff led by chief executive Jackie Maguire and those in the planning frontline all through the debates and those working at Buvinda House, the Council HQ. He also praised directors of services who had worked on the plan Kevin Stewart (now retired), Des Foley, and Larry Whelan, and senior executive officer Robert Collins who had administered the meetings of the council.

Cllr Drew also thanked his predecessors in the chair, Cllrs Wayne Harding and David Gilroy whom, he said had done the “heavy lifting” in the plan’s preparation.