This article is from page 70 of the 2006-03-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 70 JPG
THE chairman of Rural Resettlement Ireland has said Graham Webb, the former senior executive planner with Clare County Council, will be remembered in the West of the county for the unpopular zoning areas for development.
“I wish Graham Webb well in the future, but that said, in the experience of the people of Loop Head he was the figurehead representing the planning section of Clare County Council, who conducted public meetings where the total alien concept of zoning for the purpose of enforced villagisation of rural areas was rolled out.”
“In spite of being utterly rejected by the people culminating in a picket, which included local priests outside a council meeting, this enforced villagisation process was passed by council members to their eternal shame,” added the Kilbaha man.
During his five years in Clare, Mr Webb was the architect of Clare’s various Development Plans.
Speaking to The Clare People before he left his post, Mr Webb said, “All settlements are zoned which means we should be able to start making the arguments to have the infrastructure put in place to support growth in those settlements.”
The former senior planner felt, however, that the county council had been let down by the Department of the Environment and Local Government, as it did not provide the funding for infrasturutre to support such settlements.
Mr Connolly has argued against all zoning of lands for housing in the West.
“The West Clare Development Plan which excludes any housing developments outside of the zoned yellow areas, except in most restricted circumstances, to locals is a system of enforced “villagisaton” which will ensure the depopulation of the Loop Head area.
“It is totally at variance with the National Spatial Strategy and the Government policy of ensuring the survival and development of dispersed village communities. This applies especially in Clare areas such as Loop Head.”
Mr Connolly said that the Taoiseach had stated in the past that, “dispersed villages are as much a real village as any town of city.”