13^th March 2004

PRESS RELEASE          

CUFFE CALLS FOR INTEGRATED PLANNING INSTEAD OF DEVELOPER LED REZONING AT GREEN PARTY ANNUAL GATHERING IN GALWAY

 The Green Party’s Spokesperson on Planning, Housing and Heritage Ciarán Cuffe TD made a plea for ‘walkable communities’ instead of commuter towns at the Party’s Annual Convention in Galway.

 “People are being forced to live many miles from where they grew up. They commute from one county to another to their place of employment. Commuter suburbs where workers leave their homes and return under the cover of darkness are the norm. This is not sustainable. This cannot go on. For far too long a nod and a wink controlled planning decisions in this Country. We must move on. Transparent and open government will make planning decisions in partnership with communities.

The National Spatial Strategy published a year ago was a weak and diluted document. It should have taken the pressure of Dublin and Leinster. It should have primed the Border, Midland and Western Regions.  It should have had the Western Rail link as a backbone for the development of the west of Ireland, but it failed to do so. Instead Fianna Fail designated far too many hubs and gateways, and diluted its potential impact. More recently we had the so-called ‘decentralisation’ proposals. Charlie McCreevy’s political stroke politics refocused the attention on Leinster in a recipe for urban sprawl. It wasn’t the Boston or Berlin model, it was Leeds - Bradford meets Los Angeles!

To make this plan happen the Regional Authorities are calling for more outer ring roads for Dublin beyond the M50– one linking Wicklow, Naas, Navan and Drogheda, another further out again.  This is planning gone mad, -where will it end?  Which part of the Wicklow Mountains do we want to run a motorway through, -the Sally Gap or Glendalough? These proposals are not sustainable, and they merely reflect the blinkered and parochial concerns of a Government led by a flawed vision. This is all contained with the draft Regional Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area published by the Dublin and Mid-East Regional Authorities.

If the Greens were in Government we would place sustainability at the heart of planning, rather than as a bolt-on solution. We would spend the bulk of transport funding on public transport instead of new roads. We would abolish the National Roads Authority and draw together planning, transportation and development at a national level. We would have directly elected regional assemblies so reduce the democratic deficit in these faceless quangos, and we would let communities have more say over planning than the lobbyists who act as stalking horses for developers. We would ensure that every Development Plan was subjected to strategic environmental assessment to ensure that it would have a positive impact on peoples’ lives.

 “The Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen is more interested in cranes and concrete than in creating communities”, stated Ciarán Cuffe. We have got to ensure that new developments consist of more than houses, roads and sewage pipes.  Playgrounds, skate-parks, schools and parks must be included and designed into new developments from the outset through the use of well-designed local area plans.

 “Housing must include shops, crèches and places to work. Instead of zoning areas on a map for housing, industry or shopping centres we want integrated planning. Neighbourhoods must favour public transport and have a mixture of uses so that people and their children can walk or cycle, and live work and relax in the same area.

 “We must design walkable communities where the pub, church, school are located within walking distance. We did this one hundred years ago. We must do it again and learn from the past as we plan our future. It’s not a choice of high-rise or suburban sprawl. We can create well-built mixed-use developments that make good use of land and that revitalise and compliment the communities that they serve.

 “Councillors must listen to communities, rather than developers when drawing up Development Plans.

 “County Managers must spend more time at meetings in community halls than in Golf Club bars.

 “Ministers must listen to the voices of concerned citizens rather than to the shadowy figures being    mentioned at Tribunals.

 “Let’s now move on from the corruption; move on from the days of murky politics and planning. The Green Party offers that choice: let the people of Ireland decide on the 11th June!”

ENDS/