Planners Warn of Threat to Irish Villages
Sunday, October 08, 2006
The traditional Irish village is under threat because of suburban-type house styles being introduced, the country’s planners have warned.
They have called on local authorities to ensure better design and location for new houses rather than the present “one size fits all” experience.
Mr Henk van der Kamp, President of the Irish Planning Institute, stated: “Too often the experience of new housing in the countryside in many parts of Ireland has been one of poor repetitive designs, badly sited and little attempt to integrate into the landscape.
“Local authorities need to push more to ensure that new houses in rural areas respect the landscape they are slotting into and also to encourage good modern design. We need to move away from the ‘one size fits all’ bulky monotonous styles that we see across the country.”
He said it was vital for Councils in framing policies that they do not lose sight of the impact of unsustainable on-off rural housing on rural villages adding: “We need to encourage people who want to live within the rural community to locate where they have the local school and shop on their doorstep, and to do it in a way that values, protects and revitalises the built heritage of the rural village.”
Mr van der Kamp, speaking at the presentation of prizes at Louth Local Authorities’ Design and Conservation awards, welcomed the local initiative taken by the Council to encourage higher quality design in buildings in rural areas and the need to ensure that housing development in villages adopt good design to avoid unnecessary suburbanisation.