Wicklow County Councillors will be asked to adopt a new Settlement Strategy for County Wicklow at next Monday’s meeting of Wicklow County Council. Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca has called on her fellow councillors to support the proposed strategy, without trying to “water it down”.

“The drawing up of a County Settlement Strategy is a response to the high level of movement of people into and around County Wicklow” says de Burca. ”As the County Manager’s report has stated, Wicklow is one of the most rapidly growing counties in Ireland today. Between 1996 and 2002, an increase of almost 12,000 people happened in the county. This pattern is likely to intensify over the coming years” she says.

De Burca explains that the new County Settlement Strategy organises towns and villages within the county into ten different levels. “Five of these levels fall into an Urban category and the other five are considered to be part of a Rural category” says de Burca. “These levels range from the Metropolitan Area of Bray and Greystones to Moderate Growth Towns such as Blessington and Newtownmountkennedy to Small Growth Towns such as Avoca and Dunlavin and right down to Rural Clusters such as Glenmalure, Talbotstown and Kilmurray” she says. “The Strategy sets out guidelines for those who can buy new housing in any particular area of the county. In general, the planners are trying to ensure that new houses in the rural area are largely reserved for local people”.

The Green Party councillor says that she fears some of her fellow councillors will try to “water down” the proposed Settlement Strategy and lift some of the controls which it tries to apply. “Some of my fellow councillors don’t seem to believe that any controls should apply to where development happens in the county” she says. “This kind of position will certainly make Wicklow developers very happy, but it is not in the interests of the residents of the county. A ‘Free Market’ approach to planning in Wicklow will see the county being covered in concrete. It will also leave residents without necessary social and physical infrastructure, as the Government has already said that investment in such infrastructure will be targeted in very specific areas, which makes economic sense”.

Cllr de Burca is calling on her fellow councillors to vote to support the proposed County Settlement Strategy that will be before them at Monday’s meeting, and to ensure a “proper planned approach” to the growth and expansion of County Wicklow.