Sir, - The recent clamour to make one-off housing respectable again will not solve the problems of rural development.
The greatest obstacle to balanced development is the excessive growth of Dublin and the failure of the Government to deal effectively with this. Neighbouring counties still pay scant regard to the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area, though these were given statutory effect last January.
For example, if we abide by the County Development Plan and the variations recently proposed, the population of Co Wicklow could rise to 200,000 by the year 2016. This is a third higher than the Government targets presented in the Strategic Planning Guidelines.
Furthermore, the growth envisaged will not necessarily cater for locals who are seeking homes as they will still be priced out of the market. Most new houses will be bought by people from Dublin, or people from rural Ireland who have to work in Dublin, thus continuing the pattern of rural depopulation.
I fully accept Eamon O'Cuiv's point that most people would not want to be forced into poorly designed and packed urban environments. However, I do not believe that many people would really want to live in rural isolation either if there were a realistic option of living in a well designed town or viable village community.
Unfortunately, in Wicklow the towns are poorly served with the necessary infrastructure and many of our villages are being spoilt, both visually and socially, by inappropriate suburban developments.
The Wicklow Planning Alliance is not against development but, as defined in our mission statement prepared five years ago, we seek "sustainable and balanced development in Co Wicklow within the context of an integrated national and regional plan which ensures that the greater Dublin region is not over-developed at the expense of the more rural parts of Ireland".
The current planning regime is not producing this sort of development. In fact, it is not much short of a free-for-all, with dire results for both urban and rural society. The information on how to build healthy communities is now freely available - so why isn't it happening? - Yours, etc.,
Judy Osborne, Wicklow Planning Alliance, Ashford, Co Wicklow.