A COMPLETE overhaul of rural planning guidelines is needed to stem the tide of rural decline, a meeting heard.

Cllr Bernard Moynihan (FF) raised a motion at this week’s meeting of Cork County Council calling for rural planning guidelines to be eased.

He asked that family members be allowed build on the family land and that the council be given more flexibility in the midst of a housing crisis.

Cllr Joe Carroll (FF) said he knows a number of farming families living along the N71 who can’t build on their own land due to objections from the State agency.

‘TII are saying that it would mean extra journeys onto the road. These people are not just with it and planning in rural Ireland has to be looked at,’ said Cllr Carroll.

Cllr Peter O’Donoghue (Aon) said it is important to spread the housing and help rural communities that find themselves in decline.

Cllr John Collins (Ind Ire) said the village of Newcestown is a typical example whereby the biggest problem is that locals cannot get planning permission.

‘TII seems to be taking over and their knowledge of rural Ireland is very limited and they should have nothing to do with it,’ said Cllr Collins.

Cllr John Michael Foley (FG) said villages, schools and sport clubs are struggling for numbers in some rural areas.

Cllr Ann Bambury (SD) called for an urgent review of planning guidelines pointing out that we have a tradition of rural settlement in Ireland.

Cllr Daniel Sexton (Ind Ire) said this could unlock housing when the country is in the middle of a housing crisis, while Cllr Isobel Towse (SD) called for the expansion of the parish rule of seven years and said neighbouring parishes should be included when it comes to seeking planning permission.

Cllr Finbarr Harrington (Ind) pointed out that the impact of one new family coming into a rural parish on the peninsula makes a huge difference.