"The issue is hugely politically sensitive, and a review of rural housing guidelines begun 8 years ago is still not complete. That is despite pleas from planning experts going back to the 1970s urging governments to rein in rural sprawl and focus on growing the regional towns and villages instead." - ThreadSky

cosaingalway.bsky.social • 28 days ago

"The issue is hugely politically sensitive, and a review of rural housing guidelines begun 8 years ago is still not complete. That is despite pleas from planning experts going back to the 1970s urging governments to rein in rural sprawl and focus on growing the regional towns and villages instead."

Reposted from Caroline O'Doherty

The new govt wants more one-off rural housing. The (almost identical) old govt was warned by an expert group not to go down this route. It's 'inherently unsustainable' they said. Thnx to Brendan O'Sullivan of @ucc.ie & @ciarancuffe.bsky.social for input

m.independent.ie/irish-news/g...

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cosaingalway.bsky.social•28 days ago

Back in the 1970s, geography teachers in Irish secondary schools were educating their students about the impacts of ribbon development.

Perhaps the "planners" of the 1980s and 1990s never understood or appreciated what they were taught at school, because one-off housing became their stock in trade.

clodaghtait.bsky.social•28 days ago

Geography no longer compulsory so fewer than ever learning anything about such issues. Cork will soon have houses lined along every road and all along the coast.

cosaingalway.bsky.social•28 days ago

Decades pass. Nothing is learned.

https://bsky.app/profile/cosaingalway.bsky.social/post/3lgxa3eza722v

clodaghtait.bsky.social•28 days ago

Even though it doesn't effing work, esp. for traffic from east.

clodaghtait.bsky.social•28 days ago

Should reveal I'm a complete hypocrite as I live in countryside!

cosaingalway.bsky.social•28 days ago

TII knew well in advance that the Dunkettle Interchange would induce new traffic and create pressures elsewhere in the network. They identified subsequent road expansion projects that they planned to address, in order to accommodate traffic growth.

TII is unable to curtail its own car addiction.

clodaghtait.bsky.social•28 days ago

It's not even new traffic: it can't deal with the preexisting traffic, it was completely misdesigned. And it leads to roads that were last redesigned in the 80s.

cosaingalway.bsky.social•28 days ago

Over a period of decades, various national planning policy documents were produced, ostensibly with the aim of ensuring "sustainable development".

It was all empty rhetoric for the sake of optics, because the necessary political will and leadership to deliver such a long-term vision did not exist.

cosaingalway.bsky.social•28 days ago

Various strategies came and went.

In most if not all cases, their high-minded principles were abandoned almost as soon as the ink was dry.

The only consistency, and the only commitment to stand the test of time, was an ideologically-driven laissez-faire attitude to housing in rural areas.

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