Political pressure building in Mayo over ongoing rural decline

SPARKS flew at the most recent Westport-Belmullet Municipal District meeting with councillors exercised over planning in rural settings.

Rural planning remains a thorny issue that has arisen consistently at council meetings over the last decade - government looks set to place some consistent framework around it but it's no surprise that the most vocal voices on the issue come from Mayo's seaboard district.

Councillors Gerry Coyle and Paul McNamara could well have grown up looking into each other's front rooms from the Erris coast over to Achill island - and as the Geesala representative stated, the spectacular "view of the waves coming on shore and back out again never put one slice of bread on the table."

McNamara launched into a stirring tirade, ably assisted by a list of schools, shops, pubs and post offices closed or set to close on his native Achill. Councillor Coyle responded too.

Cathaoirleach Peter Flynn had a task at hand to ensure the debate ran smoothly and didn't dissolve into point scoring, ever keen to remind his colleagues that ‘it's not just a countryside issue’.

Plenty of planning issues persist in Westport too, but it's where community survival appears to be just clinging on that councillors and residents in rural scenic settings have their back up.

In the aftermath of the crash we had a tightening of belts. Homes were built in a cavalier fashion during the boom times of the Celtic Tiger; holiday homes popped up all around scenic spots on the west coast.

Then came the crash, then tighter access to finance, then government policy concentrating on urban areas and compact growth - all of which culminated in the Office of Planning Regulator: easily the most criticised body in recent times by councillors, as councillors argue the OPR stymied their county development plans and imposed its own guidelines, superseding the elected representatives.

Councillors themselves have little to no input in a planning application nowadays. It's probably the right way to have it, but they do hear about it when a constituent is refused.

Their annoyance is that those who have been refused planning are being told that the development plan was ‘signed off’ by councillors and that is cited as grounds for refusing one-off homes in certain cases.

The Achill businessman and councillor was swift to lay down a rebuke: "We signed off on a different document. Make sure planners are not saying this to people who are being refused planning."

The major issue is the fact that individuals who own homes elsewhere are being refused because their own housing need is met - whether that is in Castlebar, Galway or Dublin, as planners fear another holiday home to add to the thousands of others, or ribbon development making services more costly to connect to, or a scenic view being obstructed.

Looking in any direction from Achill to Geesala to Erris Head, it’s hard to avoid a scenic view without hollowing out caves or building in a drain.

Many of the people refused often have a local connection to the area, according to councillors. They left due to a lack of work and earned their money elsewhere but are keen to return. A natural, basic right - the very people we would all like to welcome back into our communities.

Many who have hit retirement age, or who seek to raise their family in rural western Mayo, face a cruel bind: with planning permission far from guaranteed, who in their right mind would right-size (the PC term for downsizing) by selling first and waiting in limbo, potentially homeless - while awaiting the precarity of planning and a build?

Common sense is as rare in Irish political life as it is common a phrase, but we really must look at the facts: if someone has the means to bring a site through the soft costs of planning and design and then build it - in a housing crisis that's a necessity. Build, build and build again must be the common refrain.

Fortunately it appears we have a housing minister who sees this thorny reality and is set to bring changes through before the summer.

A lot still appears ad hoc in relation to planning decisions - indeed no one application is typically the same and planners must abide by the rules and guidelines listed in county development plans. They are definitely doing their best within a fragmented system.

But as schools shutter, never to re-open, GAA clubs amalgamate, and shops and pubs follow suit, rural communities are being hollowed out. Without serviced land available in rural villages and coastal communities, there will be more of these closures.

It's an emotive topic because it stirs up so much ill-feeling, but in an era of remote work potential, national broadband plans and modern appreciation of quality of life, it should be Achill, Geesala and all of our rural communities thriving - falling over themselves to welcome homes being built.

While the alteration to the system will reportedly focus on social and economic needs in people's planning - the precise bug-bear raised by Councillor Paul McNamara - there will be the typical detractors in urban Ireland itching to scrap with the rural dwellers over tit-for-tat nonsense.

As one economics professor remarked in response to the proposed easing of rules: "Public services such as buses and emergency vehicles would have to travel further, and a more dispersed population would further stretch costly road infrastructure."

Fanning the flames, when an era of healthy cop-on is needed.