IRISH COUNTRYSIDE COULD BE TIED UP IN RED TAPE FOR YEARS
Friday, October 21, 2011
IRISH PLANNING INSTITUTE
Press Release: 21st October 2011
IRISH COUNTRYSIDE COULD BE TIED UP IN RED TAPE FOR YEARS
Planners hear call to protect rural communities and their economies
The country’s planners were told today (Friday) that only their skills can avoid the paralysis of development in rural areas that could be caused by more and more uncoordinated rules and restrictions in the countryside.
The advice came from expert Conor Skehan who warned that “a plethora of environmental restrictions threatens to engulf and overwhelm rural areas with potentially disastrous results for their future.” These, he said, could tie the countryside up in Red Tape for years.
Mr Brendan Allen, President of the IPI, welcomed Mr Skehan’s remarks that planners had a key role to play in sustaining and developing the countryside and rural communities. “The way we are currently implementing the requirements of the various Directives is not effective and is leading to conflicts. It is important that the skills and expertise of professional planners be put to best use in order to strike the appropriate balance between complying with all legal and environmental requirements whilst also providing greater certainty for development in rural areas.”
Mr Skehan, a lecturer in DIT’s School of Spatial Planning, was addressing the Autumn Conference of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) in Dublin today which is examining the implementation of the Habitats and the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directives.
He pointed out that no habitat exists in isolation from the surrounding countryside, nor from its owners, residents and users who make a living off it and in it. “Implementing the Habitats Directive will be an uphill battle unless it is part of the management of the whole countryside”, he said adding: “There’s lots more than nature conservation to be accommodated.”
Mr Skehan - one of the country’s leading experts on the topic - warned that a half dozen different types of existing and emerging legislation have the potential to result in chaos as each specialist agency or group tries to control countryside in favour of their particular issue. If the objectives of each group are not co-ordinated then “The Irish countryside will be tied in Red Tape for a generation.”
He argued that the future of rural Ireland is at a crossroads because at least six EU Directives and Conventions - for flooding, habitats, birds and landscape - will all shortly require management plans and associated systems of regulation to be put in place. Any resulting delays and restrictions could add to the challenges of rural areas, especially in peripheral and disadvantaged areas.
“Rural restrictions, enforced with inadequate preparation or consultation, causes hardship and resentment, as I have learned in my role as Chairman of the Peatlands Council,” Mr Skehan stated.
“Let us learn from past mistakes and never again forget that the vast majority of Ireland’s countryside is privately owned by people with families and communities that demand and deserve the prospect of prosperity and fulfilment. If the landscape is needed to provide wider benefits to society then these can only be provided through consent and involvement of those who own it.”
In order to comply with these environmental requirements, he said, Ireland needed an overarching system of Integrated Rural Strategies for the management of the ecology, water, heritage and flooding.
“There also needs to be strategies to help, not hinder development and the co-existence of man and nature. The strategies must anticipate and facilitate the continued development and improvement of settlement, infrastructure, tourism, access and water supply in rural areas.”
If properly prepared, he said, Integrated Rural Strategies would provide the certainty and flexibility to maximize competitiveness and productivity for development in rural communities. They would also provide the certainty to facilitate high quality environmental protection and management as well as providing communities with assurance and support that their developments are in full compliance with all legal and environmental requirements.
Only professional planners, stated Mr Skehan, have the training, skills and experience needed to draw together communities, scientists, lawyers and policy makers to make sure that the needs of every group are recognised and afforded reasonable and proportionate priority.
Difficult as these challenges may seem, he said, the rewards of success will be great. “For too long now - especially in rural areas - ‘planning’ has been publically perceived as a restriction and something separate from or even opposed to local development. Integrated Rural Strategies offers the opportunity to planners to provide the practical and positive leadership and vision needed so that rural futures are secured and not stymied.”
Mr Skehan added: “We must move on and no longer have the future of our environment determined solely by Directives and objections - always fighting rear-guard actions. Ireland must begin to set out a plan, a positive plan, for how we want to use and care for our own environment, our culture and our community. Scientists, specialists, owners and activists can all make sense of parts of the countryside - but only planners can make sense of the whole.”
Ends