Sir, - Cllr Derek Mitchell's response (April 10th) to my article of April 4th merely serves to prove my point. The thrust of my article was that those who are charged with implementing the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Dublin Area (SPGs) have failed to understand their legal status; and that legal action by individuals may be necessary to counter unplanned sprawl in Wicklow, Meath and Kildare.
He writes that I may not have known that the SPGs have been updated to allow "for the possibility of greater development" along railway lines.
In fact the update is of no legal significance since section 21(4) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 says that the SPGs published on March 29th 1999 [not any later "update"] shall have effect as if made under [the Act]". The update cannot cut across clear statutorily-incorporated guidelines that local growth only is to be allowed in Dublin's hinterland villages - outside designated growth centres.
Mr Mitchell is a Wicklow county councillor. Wicklow councillors are legally required to change their county development plan to effect the SPGs, not some bureaucratic update/annual report. Mr Mitchell admits in black and white in his letter that, where it suits him, he is ignoring the SPGs and pursuing some contextually misplaced - and illegal - ideas of his own about rail transport .
The public interest in balanced regional growth is being prejudiced by ad hoc decisions taken by people who appear to understand neither the legal nor the political significance of the SPGs they are supposed to be enforcing.
Unplanned sprawl has documented economic and social ill-effects. Balancing appropriate growth of Dublin with high-quality growth outside Leinster is of significant economic and social importance to everyone in Ireland. Perhaps we could hear more from the economic and social sectors - rather than just environmentalists - about strategic planning. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Smith, Chairman, An Taisce, Tailors Hall, Dublin 8.