Kildare County Council has adopted an ambitious housing plan to cater for the growth of the county between 2001 and 2005. The council's planners will certainly have their work cut out for them, given an acknowledged shortage of staff in the planning department.
The council admitted last week that the shortage, due in part to the drain of planners to the private sector, was a "matter of concern".
And despite a slowdown in property prices across the State, prices will continue to rise in Kildare as everywhere else, leaving an "affordability shortfall" and consequent need to increase the provision of social and affordable housing. Up to 8 per cent of the homes in all new developments will be reserved for social housing, with 12 per cent reserved for "affordable" homes.
The housing strategy identifies the primary growth centres as Naas, Newbridge, Kilcullen and the north-eastern part of the county.
The total number of households in the county will grow from 51,536 this year to 65,159 by 2006, it is estimated, yet the number of occupants per household is dropping. The annual increase in population is now around 3.4 per cent, compared to 1.9 per cent between 1991 and 1996.
It is also expected that 13,540 new households will be formed in Co Kildare between now and 2005, yet the total number of new dwellings needed is 18,563.
This arises from a backlog of more than 3,000 homes in the social and affordable housing programme and also from the need to replace 1,933 "obsolete" dwellings, according to the council. The land currently zoned and available for development provides capacity for 14,760 houses but there are proposals to zone a further 202 hectares, which should help address the shortfall.
The demand for housing is primarily from Dublin, reflecting the lack of affordable housing in the Greater Dublin Area, the report says. New employment opportunities and natural population increases will also have an impact on future demand for housing.
A survey of auctioneers in Co Kildare predicted a growth rate of 10 per cent in housing prices this year. Improvements in the county's infrastructure are necessary to sustain the planned growth and will include better public transport and the bypassing of Kildare and Monasterevin.
The report also notes an "increasingly pressing need" to deal with congestion through traffic management schemes, relief roads and other improvements essential to accommodate the growth in population.
Sanitary services, electricity and telecommunications services also need continual improvement to keep up with the pace of growth. Mr Charlie Talbot, information officer for Kildare County Council, said the authority was committed to improving services to serve the existing needs and to accommodate future growth.
The council has had discussions with the electricity and telecommunications authorities since the expansion of these networks will also be necessary to cope with the boom.
Mr Talbot points out that Co Kildare - with 2,240km of public roads - has more miles of motorway than any other county.
Improvements to roads and public transport will, however, still be necessary to accommodate the growth in Co Kildare over the next few years. There is a proposal to increase the capacity of the rail line from two tracks to four as far as Newbridge and possibly on to Kildare, which would effectively double capacity.
On the shortage of planning staff at Kildare County Council, Mr Talbot says it is only what most other local authorities have had to put up with in recent years. "There's a national shortage of planning staff and that's part of the economic boom we've had. Sometimes people find the private sector more attractive and also the number of planners coming into the system is very small." However he acknowledges the shortage of staff in such a rapidly growing county is of course, "a matter of concern".
"Notwithstanding the shortfall of staff, last year we approved planning permissions for almost 1,000 more houses than were actually built, which gave us some headroom. We also make a special effort to expedite housing developments, especially significant ones."
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