Lobby

@Frank Taylor wrote:

The PDs have launched a policy document on one-off housing:
http://www.progressivedemocrats.ie/uploads/images/Planning_For_A_Rural_Future.doc
which recommends further easing of planning restrictions on one-off housing and goes so far as to suggest that
in other words that the government should pay people to live outside towns and villages. Before the relaxation of housing guidelines in 2005, 80% of one off housing applications were already being approved. After the sustainable rural housing guidelines policy, that figure increased to 90%.

I think we are moving towards a situation where, as in FIN’s case, it has become far more difficult to get permission for urban housing in towns and villages than it is to get permission for suburban or one-off housing. We are operating a system where the more energy your lifestyle uses, the easier it is to get permission to build a house.

The number of people who disagree with this policy seems to be dwindling down to a few tree-hugging nutcases. I am a meat-eating capitalist and I am disgusted that the only party left that I can vote for is the greens.

Frank, I’m not sure where you get the 85% and 90% figures you quote above because the number of PP grants is certainly nowhere near this amount. Maybe you’re forgetting that most people pre-validate themselves with the planners before going to the trouble of applying formally. So those that haven’t a hope have already been ‘weeded out’.

I would love to see a study of the number of council employees who successfully apply versus those in the general public……anecdotally, I would expect a difference!