Prime building sites along key road in Mayo are being 'sterilised'
Cllr Paul McNamara said the issue needs to be addressed by planners.
A Westport councillor has claimed that prime sites on the N59 between Westport and Newport are "useless" as the land is all sterilised due to planning restrictions along main roads.
“The people of Westport who have lands and sites there just cannot get planning permission," Cllr Brendan Mulroy told last week's meeting of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District. "All that land is sterilised all the way down. It is creating problems for our young people who have sites there, prime sites.
"There is no reason planning could not be given. I appreciate it is government policy not to have an exit onto a main road, but I would encourage all government representatives to look at the situation along the N59. The community of Kilmeena and all the way down into Newport is affected by this.”
Cllr Paul McNamara agreed that planning permission along the N59 was "a major issue", adding that the road "stretched nearly from one end of the county to the other".
“What was being put before us last year regarding local roads leading onto the N59 was that no planning would be granted on those roads either. The access onto the N59 from the gateways of farmers, they would be in and out of them three or four times a day without any problem, yet if we look for planning for a new entrance on the N59, we are told no. And then we wonder how house prices in urban areas are the most expensive.
“Planners have to consider the other side of the coin because it will become a major issue if planning along a major road like this isn’t eased off on.”
