Inadequate Government funding of local authorities is putting the landscape at risk of inappropriate and badly planned development, the Heritage Council's chief executive said yesterday.
Michael Starrett said local authorities were "under-resourced", leaving them unable to meet their legislative obligations to ensure green areas were properly protected and incorporated in planning and development.
He said current legislation relating to the protection of environmental heritage was ineffective. "The current planning act is fundamentally lacking in an integrated approach to the landscape . . . There is an absence of current specific legislation to encourage local authorities to designate specific landscape conservation areas."
The Heritage Council wants heritage and landscape protection to be a priority in the new National Development Plan.
Mr Starrett said there was a lack of balance between the economic point of view and heritage, in favour of economic growth over landscape preservation.He spoke ahead of Heritage Week which runs September 4th-11th.
