By Cronan Scanlon
DONEGAL County Council should provide affordable housing for people living in areas saturated by holiday home development.
Fine Gael TD Dinny McGinley made the call after An Bord Pleanála (ABP) overturned another Council decision to allow more holiday homes in Dunfanaghy.
"As a result of the holiday home boom, indigenous local buyers and young people are being priced out of the market and are unable to build in the communities where they come from," Deputy McGinley said.
Last year the Council granted permission to Frazer Campbell for 16 houses and connections to the public water and sewer at Rinclevan, Dunfanaghy. However, that decision was successfully appealed to ABP.
The ABP report stated that there were already too many holiday homes in the area and the local public sewerage system could not cope with any more development. It also found that the proposed development would interfere with the character of the landscape due to its elevated site and distance from the village.
Deputy McGinley said as holiday home saturation was a result of poor planning, the Council should help local people who want to live in their own communities.
"With all this type of development around Donegal, a lot of local people find it very difficult or even impossible to buy a site or a house in the area in which they were brought up in," he explained.
"There is an onus on Donegal County Council to provide social and affordable housing for people who are in need of them. Most property in the affected areas is now well beyond the reach of the average local person. The Council has the opportunity to sort this problem out," he said.
He added that the sewerage system in Dunfanaghy, built 20 years ago, was "completely inadequate" for the demands being made at the moment.
The appeal against the council decision was submitted to ABP in the name of Gerard Convie.
The ABP Inspector's report stated that, in the planning application, there was a lack of clarity and information about the proposed development. ABP believed that there was insufficient demand for housing in the area as they found there are about 109 households in Dunfanaghy and there was a net gain of just seven families in the last four years.
"The town is relatively remote from any large centre of employment: 45 kilometres from Letterkenny.
"It is reasonable to conclude, on the basis of the last census and the remoteness of the village, that the demand for permanent housing in the village is relatively small. According to the applicant, Donegal County Council has adopted, for the purpose of assessing village development, a baseline dwelling figure of 564 dwellings in Dunfanaghy. This would suggest, on the basis of the 2006 census, that permanent homes account for only 20% of the current housing stock of the village".
"The permitted development is equivalent to 37% of the existing permanent settlement. If this application was permitted, the amount of development on these linked sites would be equivalent to nearly 50% of the existing permanent housing," the report said.
The report also stated that there may be "serious issues" in relation to wastewater treatment.
"I consider that the proposal is not in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of Dunfanaghy, having regard to the distance of the site from the village and the availability of undeveloped land closer to the village, the visual impact of the development, the probable level of demand for permanent housing in Dunfanaghy and the lack of information and uncertainty about the wastewater treatment system proposed."
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