The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, is facing embarrassment over what looks like the imminent failure of his strategic planning initiative.

The Minister has, on a number of occasions now, asked local authorities in the Greater Dublin Area to amend their development plans to take account of the Strategic Planning Guidelines.

The councillors in Meath flatly refused, rezoning large tracts of green-belt land around Dunboyne, while population targets for Navan have been revised upwards from those the council agreed to in the Strategic Planning Guidelines.

They also rejected the guidelines in planning for a massive industrial estate on the Meath/Dublin border, despite warnings that it would contribute to the development of the "`edge city", with workers commuting to the M50 from as far away as the province of Ulster.

Next, Kildare County Council prepared plans for the expansion of nearly all towns in west and north Kildare, a move that overturned the guidelines' attempts to restrict development to the Dublin Metropolitan area and other agreed growth zones.

Now it emerges that Wicklow County Council is also preparing to tell the Minister that it would prefer to go with its own plans for the development of Newtownmountkennedy, Kilcoole and Blessington, rather than abide by the guidelines.

In a move that runs contrary to the spirit as well as the letter of the guidelines, which the Council signed in 1999 and which became law in January this year, Wicklow County Council has reiterated its arguments in favour of largescale rezoning around villages in the north of the county.

The Minister had written to Wicklow County Council asking it to show him how the draft town plans complied with the Strategic Planning Guidelines. However, in a draft response seen by The Irish Times, the council does not concentrate on compliance with the guidelines at all.

The reply, which has yet to be approved by the elected members of the council, argues instead that it should take the projected growth for the next 15 years and condense it instead into the next five years, in Newtown and Kilcoole.

The council's draft document points out that Newtown is on the N11, while Kilcoole is on the mainline rail service. However, the council neglects to acknowledge that the Dublin Transportation Office has already objected to the plans, pointing out the congested nature of the N11 and its importance as a strategic corridor to Rosslare port, as opposed to a congested commuter route.

Iarnrod Eireann has also pointed out that it has no plans to upgrade the minimalist level of service to Kilcoole within the next 15 years. Throw in the absence of schools, health centres, Garda stations and even commercial facilities and the proposals hardly merit the word "plan".