Re: Re: Erosion of Community ethos in new housing developments
Hi Frank,
I can appreciate all those points aswell. It does seem that people have become more isolationist in their thinking as a result of their housing asperations and external consequences of poor planning which you alluded to. These new communities do seem to be further and further away from the town centres and areas which would promote congregation. Along with the lack of provision of a variety of types and sizes of houses within a community this is slowly leading to a society where the individual is living inside a bubble.
The question is what can be done about it. For instance there seems an unwillingness on the part of Planning Authorities to consoldiate communities by providing apperatus which a community can centre around and instilling the need for developers to provide a larger variety in house types and sizes. And asking a developer to provide this is like asking a leopard to change its spots. All they see is lost land and lost houses, therefore lost profits.
The provision of Action Area plans within the County Dvelopment plans I thought would go a long way to providing a larger variety of houses and areas of community interest. However the Planning Authorities seem unwilling to undetake these studies themselves, leave it up to the developer to provide it and the developer provides one which suits him. Surely its the Planning Authorities who should provide, implement and stand over these Plans yet is never seems to be done.
It was the provision of all these crieria which led me to buy where i did. I have a mid size house in an estate with a variety of types and sizes of house. Yes there is a transient population within the estate but it is small and most of the people I know there wish to settle there for the forseeable future. There is quite an abundance of public open space, much larger than the 10% minimum laid out in the County Wexford development plan along with some small retail units close by and it does foster community. On any given day there are a lot of neighbours about, kids usually playing on the large green areas and it seems akin to what a community experience should be. But this seems to me to be exception rather than the rule. This was all brought about due to a developer who really appreciated what goes into making a sustainable community. One in a million I say.
