Planners Call for National Spatial Strategy Review
Thursday, April 27, 2006
The National Spatial Strategy is in need of urgent review because of the country’s continuing population growth and the pressures of rapid economic development, the President of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI), Mr Henk van der Kamp, told the Institute’s annual conference in Sligo yesterday (Thur).
He also stated that residential, industrial, infrastructural and other development necessary to accommodate a bigger population should be spread in planned development throughout the country rather than concentrating growth around Dublin. At the same time he pointed out that one-off housing in the countryside was not an answer to the situation.
Speaking to 250 delegates at the National Planning Conference, organised by the IPI, Mr van der Kamp, pointed out that the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) was adopted at a time when the population and economic growth forecasts were done in a different climate.
“We need to review the National Spatial Strategy to consider the real possibility that Ireland may return to a population of 7.25 million – close to the eight million that it had in pre-Famine days,” he said adding that Ireland was not ready to cope with such growth.
Giving an example, Mr van der Kamp, said that the NSS estimated that car ownership would increase to just over two million in 2016 but recent projections suggested that this may now become three million.
He said there were compelling reasons to look afresh at the National Spatial Strategy and to reject the assumptions on which it was based:
1. At the time of preparation of the NSS the full 2002 Census results were not available. We are now going through another census with new detailed figures becoming available soon.
2. The new optimistic projection of 5.3 million population by 2020 underlines the fact that the population projections on which the NSS is based are too low and need revision.
3. More money is available for the financing of strategic infrastructure projects than was anticipated. This includes finance from the private sector willing to contribute to infrastructure in order to allow development.
4. There is more scope to achieve a rebalancing of population outside the Greater Dublin Area
5. New Government policies announced since the NSS was published, such as decentralisation policy and rural housing.
Mr van der Kamp stressed that catering for Ireland’s rapid growth had to be carefully planned. For instance, the bulk of any development should take place outside of the greater Dublin area with towns and villages being identified as key growth centres.
“Our villages are an underused and unappreciated resource which we can ill-afford to lose. These villages provide the essential social and commercial nucleus that we need to develop balanced communities”, he stated.
However, he emphasised that it was not just the quantity of development which we had to plan for but the quality had to be improved as well to cater for existing and future growth patterns.
This would mean less emphasis on one-off houses in the countryside. “The numbers game means that we need to take a radically different look at this issue,” he said adding: “No longer is the issue whether we should allow one-off houses, the issue is whether we can afford to allow this to happen.”
The Institute, he said, had been active in highlighting the need for more emphasis on urban design and the general quality of the new urban environment that we are creating. “We must move away from the traditions of solving traffic problems by constructing bypasses around congested towns, from the building of semi-detached houses at low to medium densities, from expecting everyone to have a car or two cars parked in front of their dwellinghouse and from ignoring the potential of passive solar energy in choosing housing layouts for new urban expansion projects. “
Referring to the Government’s decentralisation plan, Mr van der Kamp said it was surprising to see so many towns chosen that were not identified for growth in the NSS. There were, however, many towns which could accommodate additional growth in a sustainable development pattern.
“A key message is emerging that the National Spatial Strategy is out of date. If the growth anticipation is correct we need to be prepared for a more radical change in the Irish scale and pattern of development that we are used to from the past and we need to be prepared for more radical planning solutions,” he stated.