Mayo, the third-largest county in Ireland, has a small and dispersed population. It contains only three towns with a population of 5,000 or more: Castlebar (13,054), Ballina (10,556) and Westport (6,872). So, no big urban agglomerations. Scattered towns and villages with compact spatial footprints, their economies driven as much by links to adjacent towns and hinterlands as by their own internal activities.
Planning rules laid down by our Dublin masters require County Councils to produce Local Area Plans (LAPs) for towns of more than 5,000. So Mayo County Council has drawn up LAPs for these three towns. The Westport draft is currently out for consultation (consult.mayo.ie).
The Westport LAP consists of an impressive set of reports focused on desirable modifications to the spatial and economic structure of the town, but embracing wider issues such as strategic environmental assessment, flood risk, conservation of habitats and transport planning.
Aspirational wish lists
Two separate themes run through the LAP. On the one hand, Mayo County Council is required to ensure that rules and regulations set at a national level are observed and implemented at the county or town level.
Here, the council’s role is administrative oversight. Initial responses to the consultation (available on the Mayo County Council web site) are dominated by national agencies making sure that County Councils are never permitted to step out of line from national diktats. Not an ideal situation, but many regulations do need to be set at a national level and – let’s face it – local government in Ireland has had a rather chequered history of bad behaviour and rule bending.
The second theme concerns proper planning and sustainable development of Westport itself, an aspect that needs to be devolved down to the town level.
In other EU countries, the LAP would have been drawn up by the Mayor’s office and the town administration, subject, of course, to regional and national rules, regulations and availability of finance. Alas, here it was drawn up by the centralised county administration. The abolition of Urban District Councils in 2014 destroyed a vital link in local democracy, leaving us with only a single tier of local government whose finances and freedom of action are tightly constrained and determined at national level.
The dysfunctional relationship between these two themes makes it difficult to interpret the LAPs as other than aspirational wish lists of actions that Mayo County Council would like to undertake in the future, but are unlikely ever to have the necessary resources, permissions or will to do so.
Planning is cheap
Strategic planning is cheap. Taking action is much more challenging and difficult. In Ireland, and particularly in the Northern and Western region, we tend to get great plans but very limited or no action.
Take the following tiny example. Page 97 of the draft Westport LAP notes that: “Mayo County Council is also in the process of commissioning a project which will provide a water supply to the village of Murrisk to the south west of the town.”
About 18 months ago residents of Murrisk paid €1,500 per household to Mayo County Council in advance of the water scheme that was scheduled to be completed by next month. However, a recent enquiry through a local councillor indicated that Mayo County Council lacks finance to implement the promised water scheme and awaits a multi-million-euro top-up from government.
With one month to go to scheduled delivery, construction on the scheme does not appear to have even started.
Take also the case of the Bank Garden (page 38), a currently abandoned plot languishing at the east end of the Mall. The LAP suggests that: “The site provides opportunity for the development of a boutique town park.”
Or the Market House (Wyatt Theatre) on Westport’s iconic Octagon, which has stood closed for decades. The LAP believes that: “A building of this scale at such a prominent location in the town could provide an opportunity to be partially reinvented as a public market space, also housing commercial/enterprise units.”
To address such issues, the LAP advocates a ‘co-operative approach’ to dealing with the multiplicity of land ownership. Failing co-operation, ‘The Planning Authority may, if deemed appropriate, consider the use of its compulsory purchase powers and along with other powers to facilitate development and secure the strategic objectives of the Plan’.
However, the reality is that sites like these are privately owned and Mayo County Council has been historically reluctant to use its powers of compulsory acquisition, even if it has finance. I hardly dare mention the powers given to Mayo County Council by the Derelict Sites Act of 1990.
Reality check
It would be better to have a more-honest set of LAPs for Westport, Ballina and Castlebar. Plans that set out worthy long-term strategic goals, but drew up shorter-term action plans that could realistically and forcefully be implemented between 2023 and 2029. Plans that came clean about the council’s limited powers and reluctance to use what little powers it has. Plans that acknowledged the constraints on local government finances and their negative consequences for strategic planning of Mayo towns.
Without such honesty we know that ‘The best laid schemes o’Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley’.
John Bradley is a former ESRI professor and has published on the island economy of Ireland, EU development policy, industrial strategy and economic modelling.
OPINION: The council should take a more-honest approach to Local Area Plans
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16.11.2023
Mayo, the third-largest county in Ireland, has a small and dispersed population. It contains only three towns with a population of 5,000 or more: Castlebar (13,054), Ballina (10,556) and Westport (6,872). So, no big urban agglomerations. Scattered towns and villages with compact spatial footprints, their economies driven as much by links to adjacent towns and hinterlands as by their own internal activities.
Planning rules laid down by our Dublin masters require County Councils to produce Local Area Plans (LAPs) for towns of more than 5,000. So Mayo County Council has drawn up LAPs for these three towns. The Westport draft is currently out for consultation (consult.mayo.ie).
The Westport LAP consists of an impressive set of reports focused on desirable modifications to the spatial and economic structure of the town, but embracing wider issues such as strategic environmental assessment, flood risk, conservation of habitats and transport planning.
Aspirational wish lists
Two separate themes run through the LAP. On the one hand, Mayo County Council is required to ensure that rules and regulations set at a national level are observed and implemented at the county or town level.
Here, the council’s role is administrative oversight. Initial responses to the consultation (available on the Mayo County Council web site) are dominated by national agencies making sure that........
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