Blanket ban on one-off housing in Northern Ireland announced

A look at Cavan reveals much the same picture even prior to this move

Ha ha …good one MT…..It could be very very possible with the way things are going.

Swings and roundabouts : hopefully there will be some green pasture left before we hit the roundabout.

It has to be said that the Celtic Tiger and the burgeoning economy has brought an abundance of wealth to Ireland and isn’t it great. I know the downside too, ie sluggish health service, transport congestion etc…, but this ongoing boom has never ever been the case before, for the people and country, bar maybe a brief period in the 1960’s and the Celtic Golden Age of Ardagh Chalices etc..
But did anyone see on the news last night and today’s Irish Times that a report issued by NCB stockbrokers says that growth is to continue at an unstoppable pace. It forcasts that the population of the Republic of Ireland is expected to rise with increased births to over 5 million by 2020 and to over 6 million by 2050. One fifth of the population will be migrant workers. This is incredible to think that the population will be nearing pre-1845 famine levels. Many new homes will be needed and our cities and towns as well as the landscape will be almost unrecognizable no doubt; changing to suit the needs. However, the concentration of people should be in the cities and towns however not sprawling into the country side. The sprawl has to be curbed. High rise will be inevitable too, no doubt.
The report says that there will be almost 3 million cars on Irish roads. It seems like that now. The number of houses is expected to continue growing by around 65,000 units a year until at least 2020.
These are great times, and changing times too. I’d rather be optimistic than pessimistic about it.
Welcome to the 21st century, Ireland.

@MT wrote:

But the thing is, countries such as Britain have long since realised through prolonged exposure to industrialisation that with the bright new dawn comes the odd cloud. People there realised many decades ago that development left unchecked would soon eat up all the remaining beauty of the countryside. Add to this that it’s almost two centuries since the bulk of the British population lived and worked in the countryside and there’s probably a far greater appreciation of what could be lost in the UK..

I have made my arguments on one-off houses in other threads and will leave it at that. However, with regards to the above comment, this could be considered in another light. Perhaps it is precisely because Ireland has witnessed the immense ugliness that industrialized and mass urbanism brought with it in Britain that they often wish and choose to live in the countryside. Maybe it is us who have learned from the mistakes of British urbanism and hence wish to ‘return to the land’, for whatever social or utopian reason. Lets face it, I hardly think holding up such dystopian nightmares like Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Swindon and so on as forms of human settlement preferable to one-offs is something we should espouse!

To take the historical approach I think that one offs should only be permitted if they are of a traditional size; i.e. 300-550 square feet, only if they use traditional materials and only if the occupants work within walking distance of their homes.

To state that developers are building shoe boxes is simply not true; with the exception of a very small number of city centre apartments the average ‘scheme’ built home is between 800-1500 square feet.

Sorry for second post, but wanted to add this to first but cannot.

If you want to remove the right of people to build one-offs on the basis that they spoil the environment and are uneconomical, then surely all who would support that logic would also favour regulations that limit the type of car one buys. After all, who needs a 4X4 or a BMW coupe when a Ford Focus or something less damaging on the environment would serve the same function adequately. In short, there should be regulations stating that a single person should only have a 1.1 3 door car, a family should be allowed a 1.5 5 door car and so on. Would this be considered an infringement of one’s personal liberty to possess a car that one desires? If you agree, then you have to agree that one should be allowed to build a one-off according to one’s desires. Before anyone posts anything more about one-offs first of all ask yourself do you practice what you pontificate by owning only the least environmentally damaging form of transport possible given your family and lifestyle circumstances. Would you object if the Government turned round and told you to sell your Audi 2 litre and get a Fiesta as that is all you need for your particular circumstances. I have a feeling that there are a good percentage of the anti-one-off brigade that would find this problematic.

@MT wrote:

Maybe it’s apocryphal but apparently the ‘Irish’ film Waking Ned Devine – the one about the village conspiring to win the lottery – was filmed on the Isle of Man as it was felt the countryside there better resembled what Ireland should look like. In other words the Manx countryside has been properly preserved while the Emerald Isle (a description that’s becoming increasing farcical) has been covered in bungalows and McMansions.

Even if that claim is a myth and the film makers were drawn by tax incentives and nothing else, why is it that the people of this island couldn’t give a toss about the environment when the Scots, Manx, Welsh and the English have gone to huge lengths to preserve their rolling green fields, etc. It takes an undemocratic dictate from direct rule ministers in Northern Ireland to force its people to stop the destruction. Meanwhile in the Republic the race to the bottom continues at full tilt.

What will our descendants think when they see an ugly disfigured countryside where every worthwhile view has been blemished with one-off sprawl. Won’t they look at the beauty of the rural landscapes of our nearest neighbours and wonder what the hell we were thinking?

Can you imagine how this Manx valley would fare in the Ireland of the 21st century? I imagine its unspoilt greenness wouldn’t look anywhere near as green on the ‘Emerald’ Isle itself. 🙁

That new (rubbish) movie with Andrea Corr set in Clare in the 60’s (The boys and girls of somewhere or other ?) was also made in both the Isle of Man and N. Ireland. Obviously the only places that look like Clare in the 60’s, including Clare.