A DATABASE to help prevent the planning mistakes that led to the national glut of unoccupied and unfinished housing estates has been developed by the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis.
The NUI Maynooth-based research organisation, which produced the first State-wide analysis of the number of “ghost estates” almost a year ago, has combined information from the Central Statistics Office, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Government departments and State agencies in one online resource.
The database will allow planners to select areas at European, country, county and even street level, and identify the needs of residents to decide where to allocate housing, health, education or transport facilities.
Planners using the All Island Research Observatory (AIRO) database will be able to map an area of any size and see how many people are unemployed, whether it has broadband, what the levels of car ownership are, how people travel to work, or what the education levels are in order to make the best decisions for that area.
It will also allow planners to look beyond their own county or local authority area to avoid duplication of housing, hospitals or other facilities, and develop shared services and strategies with other planners.
In relation to the ghost estates, planners will be able to see instantly what particular problems an individual development has, for example, whether it is a complete estate with unfinished roads, whether it is complete but unoccupied, or whether houses and sewerage and associated works are only partially finished.
Institute director Prof Rob Kitchin said the resource would provide for proper evidence-based planning.
“We have seen the legacy of poor planning throughout the Celtic Tiger years in the number of ghost estates we are now trying to deal with.
“Had something like AIRO been available then, planners may have been in a position to call a halt sooner,” he said.
For data protection reasons the institute’s database will only be available to local authorities, Government bodies and approved agencies.
