South
West Regional Authority
Director,
South West Regional Authority
Good
Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you to the South West Region of
Ireland and compliment Terry and his committee on securing this conference for
I
am the Director of the South West Regional Authority.
The Regional Authority is the next administrative layer under government
in relation to the planning system.
The southwest region covers the counties of
I
am here to speak to you about the Regional Planning Guidelines (RPG’s)
prepared by the South West Regional Authority with particular reference to
landscape.
One
of the key elements of the Development Strategy for the region is that
“Planning policies should, in a balanced fashion, seek to retain and protect
the unspoilt landscape of the Region and promote environmental care and
enhancement, with wise use of the resources of the area.”
The
chart below explains where the Regional Planning Guidelines fit in; Bruce
McCormack has already referred to the National Spatial Strategy (NSS). The
Regional Planning Guidelines lie between the NSS and the Development Plans of
the Local Authorities and the Local [Area] Plans are the final layer of the
process. You also have other guidelines feeding into the process in relation to
development planning, village renewal etc.
As
I have said the regional planning guidelines are in the middle and their role is
to act as a conduit between the national polices and the local development
plans, therefore they must reflect what is in the National Spatial Strategy and
the Local Authorities must in their turn reflect what is in the Regional
Planning Guidelines.
I
will give you a very short overview of the Regional Planning Guidelines.
I know that some delegates have copies at this stage from our stand in
the exhibition area and if anybody else is interested in copies we will be glad
to provide them.
With
regard to the planning timeframe, the Regional Authority tends to work on a
longer timeframe than the Local Authorities.
We operate on a twenty-year timeframe, whilst the National Development
Plan, for example, which is the investment programme of the government, is
operated on a six-year timeframe - from the year 2000 to the year 2006.
The
National Spatial Strategy is running on an eighteen-year timeframe from 2002 to
2020. The Regional Planning
Guidelines takes the NSS into account and are running from 2004 to 2020. The
development plans are updated every five years. We will also review the Regional
Planning Guidelines every 6 years just to make sure that they are up to date.
Our
regional planning guidelines for the southwest have two sets of objectives and
the principal objectives are the economic objectives and in that we want to
develop the South West as a knowledge-based economy.
You
have already heard many references to the current vibrant economy of
On
the physical side of things we have a number of specific objectives - that would
include building on the existing strengths of
We
have ‘hubs’ at Mallow, Tralee and Killarney, these are secondary towns that
have been designated for substantial development, which will in fact almost
double their populations, the intention being to develop critical mass in these
other regional centres. Linked very much into all this - there are landscape and
environmental protection requirements.
One
of the striking things about the southwest region of
We
see that the landscape and the quality of the environment in the region as key
assets in securing economic development and they are very much used as marketing
tools.
We
are therefore trying to maintain the existing quality of the landscape and
environment and also grow the economy in sustainable manner at the same time.
The
inter-regional dimension is central to the guidelines and in relation to
heritage and culture; “Local authorities have a strong role in heritage
protection and enhancement in spheres of archaeological, built and natural
heritage. These areas can, frequently, have strong interregional dimensions,
through, for example, the preparation of landscape character assessment and
other issues, which have a cross-boundary nature.”
“There
is an opportunity for inter-county and inter-regional co-operation on a wide
range of issues, such as: forestry, landscape assessment, wind farm development,
protection of views, coastal zone management, river catchment basin management,
etc.”
The
River Shannon estuary is an obvious example of such an opportunity.
In
the guidelines we identify four zones, which I am not going to describe in any
great detail. Moving from west to east, - in Zone 4 you have a rural and
peripheral zone out on the
Outside
of the city of Cork and those two ‘hubs’, we have identified strategic towns
and what we are saying in the guidelines is that all development or certainly
most development should be directed into those strategic towns, where you can
develop sustainability in terms of service requirements, citizens needs etc.
In
doing that you protect the landscape of a region, rather than scatter these
types of developments all over the place. If
we can concentrate the resources into these specific towns, then it is feasible
to follow up with improved and new services like broadband, improved water and
sewage facilities etc. All of this, as you know has an ongoing knock-on
beneficial effect on environmental sustainability.
We
have specific planning guidelines in respect of each zone in the South West
region
The
emphasis in the guidelines is on the need to develop critical mass in selected
locations and direct development in a cascading manner from gateway to hubs and
on to key service towns.
Environmental
protection is a very high priority in the guidelines, as is the protection of
the regions scenic amenities, in particular its coastline and mountain areas.
The protection of the fabric of the towns and villages is also accorded a high
priority, because again they are extremely important in marketing this region as
a tourism area and an area for economic investment.
The
strategies are underpinned by an infra-structural development plan. Part of the
Regional Authorities day-to-day role is in the prioritisation of
infra-structural development by government. The Regional Authority actually
identifies where the investment priorities are in the region in terms of
infrastructure investment. We will prioritise that investment in line with the
Regional Planning Guidelines.
The
Department of the Environment has set up a national committee, which is an
inter-departmental committee of all government departments and those government
departments will take this plan into account in structuring their investment
decisions for this region over the next twenty years.
So
you can see we are making a very important beginning in ensuring that planning
is fully integrated in
Those
of you interested in the planning guidelines and who have not received a copy of
the document should note that it is also available on the Regional Authority
website at www.swra.ie.
I
would also mention in relation to that website that the South West Regional
Authority is working on a European commissioned programme at the moment on the
area of democracy and on facilitating greater levels of citizen participation in
the policy making process.
Under
that project we have developed an online consultation tool, which allows the
public to access consultation documents, discuss the documents and make
submissions. We would hope that the submissions received would be taken into
account by the body politic in the development of future policies.
We
have recently placed the
Thank you.