Have your say on development plan

SIR – Cork County Council has invited the public to make online submissions on the pre-Draft of the County Development Plan 2022 to 2028. We the public, now have an opportunity, by making submissions and talking to our councillors, to participate in the formulation of the rules that will regulate developments in West Cork up to the end of the decade.

A decade that is already being shaped by an uncertain pandemic future, pressing climate change issues and, not least, by the colossal recession that is spinning out of this. The content of the new plan will be fundamentally different from the 2014 to 2021 plan, in that it will replace the current eight Municipal District Local Area Plans and the Development Plans of the former Town Councils.

The impact of the new development plan will therefore be much greater than the present one, in that it will now detail policy objectives for all settlements, including zoning, without the lower level local area plans to add an extra buffer level of interpretation.

There is often public criticism voiced over planning decisions and environmental impact assessments, but we live in a participative democracy and our elected representatives enact the rules that govern our lives. The development plan is an important core element of these rules.  It is your county –  let your voice be heard whilst policy is still in the making.

The closing date for submissions is 12 midnight on Thursday, July 2nd , 2020.

Nigel de Haas,

Inchincurka,

Dunmanway.