Minister rejects changes to Ballina's local area plan

Councillors in the Ballina Municipal District will seek an urgent meeting with the Minister for Local Government James Browne after he ruled that no material alterations will be made to the draft Local Area Plan despite several submissions from councillors regarding zoned land.

A Local Area Plan is a statutory document which sets out a strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development of a specific area such as a town.

At last week’s municipal meeting, Mayo Co Council's Director of Services Catherine McConnell said Minister Browne had issued a direction that no material alterations would be made to the draft Ballina Local Area Plan.

Cllr Jarlath Munnelly was highly critical of the direction as he felt that councillors in Ballina had done their due diligence on their submissions.

“We put a lot of effort in here and made decisions based on sense. We said no to a lot of suggestions and only put forward good cases. We acted in good faith as newly elected councillors and the Minister has completely ignored what we think."

Cllr Munnelly said the lack of available land has already had an effect on Ballina and he would not be surprised if councillors will be called upon to make similar submissions in the near future.

“Ballina is lagging behind similar-sized towns because the land we have zoned won’t be built on and we tried to address this,” he said. “What will happen now is the Government will revise its housing targets and they will come back to us to find more land to zone when we already have done so and tried to make them aware through our submissions. It’s bananas.”

Cllr John O'Hara said it was "outrageous" that this decision will result in a lack of housing development for young people.

Cllr Michael Loftus suggested bringing a motion before the next full meeting of the council seeking an urgent meeting with Minister Browne.

“All the land we put forward could be serviced, we ticked every box they needed ticked.”

All five councillors present - Cllr Munnelly, Cllr Loftus, Cllr O'Hara, Cllr Annie May Reape and Cllr Joe Faughnan - agreed to put their names on the motion seeking a meeting with the Minister.