planning capital

@Lotts wrote:

Actually to be fair that is really just along the roads. Get out and walk and you can find plenty of unspoiled landscape. Beautiful county. I havn’t been there yet this year but on my last vist, parts of Donegal felt like, you know that road in Galway from the city out by spiddel to cararoe, that type of thing and it felt like those same mistakes being made again. The only places I saw development being clustered were ‘holiday villages’. Maybe they are nice in the summer but the ones I’ve seen didn’t have adaquate heating for even a short vist in wintertime. [btw How are building certs issued? Is there a special category for holiday homes – and only have to be habitable 6 months?]

Hopefully this years glut of apps will avoid all the earlier mistakes.

I kive in donegal and so I know what is happening on the ground and I can assure you you aint seen nothing yet, The develpopers and the sons and daughters who cant build are trying to build on every place they can site a house. Dunfanaghy is often quoted as an example of bad planning in Donegal but it is happening eveywhere, they are attempting to put high density housing in all small villages in order to maximise profits.Away from the villages evey scenic area is at risk regardless of where it is or what the supposed restrictions are ie; SAC, Cat 3, NHA etc. The restictions and categories are meaningless anyway because no action is ever taken or if it is it usually an application for retention which will be granted. There is not the will in Donegal to protect the enviroment or Landscape either from the local people or politicians, I live in a gaeltacht area and there is also no interst whatsoever in preserving the language if it means putting language conditons or restictions in planning applications. Regarding Building certs, there are conditons attached to permissions for certain one off houses ie; must be the applicant or his family or a member of the indigenous community who will use it as a permanent house but they are meaningles because they are never policed. There are numerous instances of houses with these conditons attached which have a for sale sign in the field before the house starts.
As far as the sons and daughters wanting to build in their own local area, well all the sons and daughters here are building mainly to sell for as much money as possible, and if that means that their neighboiurs sons and daughters cant live in the area because they cant afford the prices because the houses are sold to professionals from cities outside the area for holiday homes well thats their problem, its just grab grab grab…

yes council are to blame for not adhereing to their county develpment planor enforcing it, the legislation is there but it is not enforced. the new online planning system is excellent, in fact i am surprised that they have introduced this because they are usually very unhelpful when it comes to giving out information on planning applications if they think you may be objecting or commenting on them. Most councillors will support any buiding application no matter where it is built how it is built or what it looks like. There are a lot more appeals and submissions than before but compared to the rise inn planning applications it is small. The reason there are more appeals is because the developers and locals are coming closer to peoples houses than ever before as the plot s diminish and people who would never have appealled before are finding thremselves surrounded by building sites and are forced to appeal to preserve their immediate enviroment. The majority of people dont care and cant understand why anyone who has land doesnt build as many bhouses as possible on it in order to get as much money as possible, they care about one thing money.

the last two posts are absolutely right yet only last week the head of tourism for the north west was on the local radio station talking about thre decline in tourism figures for the year and talking about having to improve theproduct on offer and yet not once did he say that the fact that the landscape and evironment was blighted by ugly trophy houses was the major reason tourism fiugures were down for the region. There are actually now areas in Donegal where northern Ireland visitors avoid because there are too many holiday homes and it just does not feel like an escape from the city anymore with cars and lorries carrying building materials flying past all day everyday including sunday. There are more and more applications for hotels in sensitive areas with ghastly designs and yet the occupancy rate for hotels in donegal is just over 50%..Its a bit like the fishing industry keep fishing or building until there is nothing left.

yes interesting that article but that does’nt not sound like the Jim Harley or Donegal County Council I know. I know numerous people who have complained to the council about the occupancy issue in relation to developments adjacent to them being sold and it was like hitting a brick wall. If you send a letter you get no reply, if you persist they will say they looking into it then do nothing. If this is a genuine change that is good but it s a bit like poacher turned gamekeeper, why. There has not been much feedback in the local press about this article just one councillor saying we should not do anything draconian as we must protect the indigenous community..heard that one before, its the indigenuous that is flouting the law which is actually detrimental to the indigenous community in the long term.