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[Press Release: November 10th, 2004] Greens concerned at lack of time to discuss Draft Bray Development PlanFollowing last Tuesday's meeting of Bray Town Council at which councillors refused to extend the meeting after 10pm to allow the Draft Bray Development Plan to be discussed, Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca has expressed her concern that the Green Party is being denied a fair opportunity to discuss and change the Draft Plan."This Development Plan will dictate the development of the town over the next six years" says councillor de Burca. "The Green Party councillors on Bray Town Council were originally told that three meetings would be set aside to discuss the Draft Development Plan, which was drawn up by the previous council. Last Tuesday's meeting was one of the three meetings set aside to discuss the plan. Strangely enough, there were so many items on the agenda that we did not get around to discussing the Development Plan, which was towards the end of the agenda. I proposed an extension of 30 minutes at the end of the meeting to allow some discussion on the Draft Plan, but my proposal was not supported by Labour Party or Fianna Fail councillors" The Green Party councillor claims that this means that councillors now have only two meetings before Christmas at which to discuss the Development Plan and to debate any changes to it, as the statutory deadline for such changes is January 2nd 2005. She claims that this is not enough time and that it will create the kind of last-minute, pressure-cooker atmosphere that was recently experienced on Wicklow County Council when councillors were adopting the Wicklow County Development Plan. "It seems clear to me that other councillors on Bray Town Council want to give the Green Party councillors as little time as possible to change the Draft Development Plan which they put together before the local elections in June" says de Burca. "However, we are three councillors out of twelve and we have every intention of making our contribution to the new Bray Development Plan and of making sure that it meets the needs of all of the people of the town, as well the needs of business and development interests". De Burca claims that herself and her Green Party colleagues will be calling for an additional meeting of Bray Town Council before Christmas if necessary to ensure that enough time is available to discuss all aspects of the Draft Development Plan and to make appropriate amendments.
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