Planning Institute Challenges New Urban Report
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The President of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI), Andrew Hind, today took issue with the report “Twice the Size?” prepared by the Futures Academy of the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) for the Urban Forum. While the IPI acknowledges that the report is intended to stimulate debate on national planning issues, the Institute does not support its recommendations.
The DIT report states that “Dublin is the only ‘real’ Irish City” and recommends that the most realistic way forward is to “reflect the dominant role of the Greater Dublin area” and concentrate Ireland’s population on the east coast encouraging key cities on the south and west coasts to “develop distinctiveness instead of solely population growth.”
Mr Andrew Hind, President of the Irish Planning Institute, said: “The Institute disagrees with this new concept developed by the Futures Academy and supports the central objective of the National Spatial Strategy, to provide a better balance of growth between Dublin and the regional cities. We also support the Government and Local Authorities in their efforts to implement the Atlantic Gateways Initiative to secure the growth of a second major conurbation of international significance centred on Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.
“These strategies will together help stem the declining economic and social trends that have dogged many parts of the south and west for decades by promoting the regional cities as a network of attractive, sustainable and vibrant urban centres, complimentary to Greater Dublin, and offering a real choice of location within Ireland for both our growing population and future investors in our economy.
“The Government’s National Spatial Strategy and its Atlantic Gateways Initiative are both long-term strategies and the instruments for their implementation are still being put in place by Government Agencies and Local Authorities. It is premature to commence a major policy review until these measures have had time to ‘bed in’ and become effective.”
The IPI Annual Conference, which takes place in Westport, Co Mayo on 3rd & 4th April 2008, will specifically address this issue.