Joe Behan - Independent Councillor - Wicklow County Council


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County Wicklow Development Plan

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Statement on County Wicklow Development Plan
12 April 2015


I will be proposing a significant increase in projected housing in County Wicklow over the next 15 years when the Council discusses the Chief Executive's Core Development Strategy tomorrow, Monday, 13th April, 2015.

I believe that Council Planners have adopted too cautious an approach to the ideal number of permitted houses and the ideal number of people we should have living in the County by 2031.

In my opinion, the reason why house prices are so high in County Wicklow is that supply has been restricted too much, resulting in many young residents being forced to pay exorbitant rents or purchase vastly over priced houses or worse still being forced into homelessness or having to leave their home county and move south to Wexford and beyond.


It is time for Wicklow County Council to grasp this nettle and allow more people to live in decent housing in their own county. I will be calling on all Councillors to support my direction (under Section 11 [4] of the Planning and Development Act) to the Chief Executive to increase the total amount of residential zoning and projected population of County Wicklow by 2031 from his suggestion of 185,000 to the new figure of 203,400 and to distribute the increased population/housing pro rata throughout the County.

This is a basic first step in ensuring that County Wicklow provides an adequate supply of housing for this and future generations.

Joe Behan
Independent


Serving the people of County Wicklow since 1985 | joebehan@outlook.ie

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