Cuffe welcomes Urban Forum planning proposals

Press Release: Environment 13 February 2007

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13 February 2007

Cuffe welcomes Urban Forum planning proposals

The Green Party has welcomed today's Urban Forum recommendations to improve the planning and design of Ireland's urban centres. The Forum, which is made up of Ireland 's top planning bodies such as Engineers Ireland and the Irish Planning Institute, has called for the national spatial strategy to be reviewed, an increase of local authority planners and mandatory regional planning guidelines.

Green Party Planning spokesperson Ciarán Cuffe TD said: "This is an analysis conducted by the professional institutes at the forefront of planning in Ireland and it again highlights the economic, social and health costs of the current government's laissez faire attitude to planning.

"An Atlantic rail corridor linking Cork , Limerick and Galway as suggested by the Forum would counterbalance the sprawl of Dublin and enable commuters to have alternatives to the car. Mandatory regional planning guidelines ensure that local authorities must take into account local social and economic infrastructure and enable long term, sustainable communities to be created.

"There is a strong overlap between many of the policy recommendations contained in Urban Forum analysis and those that the Green Party launched last week in our Urban Development Policy. These include:

§ *The creation of a new National Transport and Planning Agency to coordinate transport and land-use planning. The agency would give final approval to County Development Plans.

§ * Putting people at the heart of planning in the design of residential areas and in the promotion of more public participation in the planning system. The Green Party will ensure that the focus of urban residential planning is to create long-term sustainable communities.

§ *Introducing a Sustainable Transport Programme that will ensure that the bias of public spending will shift from private to public transport. Under the programme local authorities will have more funding for transport investment in growth areas and will deliver local sustainable transport plans with corridors for cycle and walkways along existing rail, roads and waterfronts."

Click here to read the Green Party Urban Development Policy in full