‘Unfair’ planning rules stopping young people from building homes in rural Tipperary
“Unfair” planning rules in Tipperary are stopping young people from being able to build their homes and settle in rural areas near their families, it has been claimed.
At the January meeting of Tipperary County Council, independent councillor Mairín McGrath tabled a motion calling on the council to review its policy on the development of one-off houses along strategic road routes which are designated to carry high traffic volumes between major towns, calling the current plans “extremely restrictive.”
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr McGrath said that the local authority should be doing everything they can to support young people who want to build homes in rural areas on these strategic roads.
“If a young person has a site, has a desire to live in the countryside and has the means to build it, which is an achievement in itself in this climate, we as a local authority should be supporting that person and not putting additional and unnecessary barriers in place,” she said.
"I don’t think that’s the case when it comes to our strategic regional roads, because we have an additional restrictive criteria for young people who are trying to build.
"We’re preventing young people from building on their own land, and I think the criteria that we have is far too onerous,” Cllr McGrath said.
In response to Cllr McGrath’s motion, the council said that the restrictions were needed to ensure the safety of road users and that some exceptions were available, however Cllr McGrath said she didn’t think the exceptions go far enough.
“Maybe I’m different to a lot of councillors but I think these regional roads are safer, we have a motorway running parallel to them, the traffic is on the motorway, and these long, straight, wide roads are quieter,” the independent councillor said.
"This isn’t going to open up the floodgates, but there is people who are caught up by this rule that we have.
"I understand that we have to have a county development plan to prevent haphazard development, but sometimes these are just unworkable and unfair to the landowners,” she added.
Supporting Cllr McGrath’s motion, Ballina councillor Phyll Bugler said that the council should be encouraging people to stay in their communities.
"We really need to get people staying in our rural areas.
"We do need a bit more flexibility in the current climate when we have such a housing shortage, it’s terrible to see local people who can’t build on their own land because of this restriction,” Cllr Bugler added.
Councillor Mark Fitzgerald said that getting land from a family member may be the only way some young people can get on the property ladder.
"I accept the council’s point that there’s other areas that people can build on, but for a lot of these people, getting a site from their grandfather or their father might be the only feasible way for them to actually afford to build a house, because they mightn’t actually be able to afford the extra €40,000, €50,000 or €60,000 to buy a site,” he said.
Also supporting the motion, councillor Séamie Morris said that the National Development Plan (NDP) is “out of kilter” with the reality many people are facing.
“The NDP is just wanting people to live in towns and villages, which is fine, but we saw a report that said the electricity grid can’t take any more houses being connected to electricity, Uisce Éireann are a problem as well, but the fact of the matter is that young people can’t put a roof over their heads because there’s no houses in the towns and villages, and smaller towns and villages have no chances of building a house,” Cllr Morris said.
"We should put a motion to the Government to say that the NDP is totally out of kilter with reality, because it is. I know several people who didn’t even try to get planning permission because they were told not to bother,” he added.
Fianna Fáil councillor Kieran Bourke said that although he supported the county development plan back in 2022, if he had his time back, he wouldn’t support it now.
In response to Cllr McGrath’s motion, the council’s director of services for roads, Liam Brett, said he didn’t agree with the motion in its current form.
"The policy as it stands is a very important policy for the roads department. I can’t emphasise that enough,” Mr Brett said.
"I don’t agree with the notice of motion as it is proposed. These roads we’re talking about, when there’s an accident on the M7 or the M8, these roads take enormous volumes of traffic, and we need to protect these routes. If we take this policy away, we risk losing investment from the Department of Transport,” he added.
Director of services for planning and development Brian Beck said that people do in fact get planning permission to build on these roads, and that it’s not just a blanket no.
"People do get planning permission, they are allowed to build on these roads in controlled circumstances,” Mr Beck said.
"As Liam said, we do run the risk of the Department of Transport reducing the allocation for these roads if we relax that policy,” he added.