Local Needs:Tell me why, I can not buy a site and build a house where I want to?

Re: Local Needs ???

IMHO villages should be villages and town should be towns.

The county councils spend a lot of time and effort in drafting development plans for their counties which are not adhered to by planners/developers.

Small villages such as the one I live in and others around it are being destroyed by inappropriate large scale developments that are driven by tax incentives.

The only recourse people have is to appeal plans that are clearly in contravention of the county development plans to the mercy of an bord pleanala.

If a village has a population of a couple of hundred people, adding a housing estate of 68 houses will dramatically change the dynamic of that village in a very short space of time.

I am not opposed to development but I would like to see appropriate well thought out sustainable development. I would not like to see developers creating an artificial demand for housing for greedy tax dodgers.

If the planners did their jobs properly many of the applications received for large scale developments would not be granted planning permission in the first place.

This is just my opinion.

Re: Local Needs ???

Small villages such as the one I live in and others around it are being destroyed by inappropriate large scale developments that are driven by tax incentives.

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What tax incentives are available for the building of houses?

If a village has a population of a couple of hundred people, adding a housing estate of 68 houses will dramatically change the dynamic of that village in a very short space of time.

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If every young person who grows up in your village wanted to stay there and buy a house would there be enough houses? Should those people be allowed to move to towns or cities or should the locals there be allowed to abject to all these country folk coming in and changing the community spirit of the area?

I would not like to see developers creating an artificial demand for housing for greedy tax dodgers.

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I'm sure you mean tax avoiders?
If you had the opportunity to legally pay less tax would you take it?
How can developers create a demand? Surely they can only build to supply the demand that is there.

A town like Naas has been changed utterly over the last few years as a result of development. Areas of Dublin like Ringsend, Dundrum and Phibsborough have also been changed utterly. Why is this Ok and it's not OK for rural areas? If it's not OK then where do all our young families live? Would you prefer it if they emigrated?

My Point is that these developments should not be allowed take place without the necessary amenities being in place FIRST and not being put in afterwards when everybody is giving out and holding public meetings.

As i said it's rural so no bus service to Carlow town, no bus service to the next village that has a supermarket, pharmacy, take-away!!!! No provisions for creche facilities, no youthclubs etc. With there being being no area to develop in the "main strip" of the village what will inevatibly happen is that shops,pubs etc will be put into this estate eventually!!

Meaning that people in the estate no longer integrate with the village.

Unfortunately in reality putting in facitilies first isn't an option, there will always be a critical masse of people required to make these facilities viable. The problem is that services provided by the state or state run business take ages to be provided and sometimes don't get provided at all unless there's enough votes in it. To be fair to the private sector they litterally "set up shop" as soon as there's enough people to make it worthwhile. The state should have certain standards set per size of population in an area, if there are X thousand living in an area then they should get a school, garda station, fire station etc and these standards should be compulsory and there should be a commitment to provide them before developers are granted zoning to build. If the state can't afford to provide any of this or isn't prepared to then zoning should not be granted or the developer should have to foot all or part of the cost.

Unfortunately in reality putting in facitilies first isn't an option, there will always be a critical masse of people required to make these facilities viable.

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I was referring to Water, ESB, streetlights, Cable TV, train stations, roads, parks etc. Space for shops, pharmacies, pubs etc can be allocated by the planners and will open as the demand grows.
Public infrastructure such as Garda stations, libraries, crèches and schools should be built by the developer at their cost as a condition of their planning permission. All of this should be in place, for all phases of the development, before they are allowed to sell one house or apartment.

Hi Purple
To answer your question there are section 23 type tax incentives available to home buyers where I live under the rural renewal scheme. The incentive for builders is that homes are more attractive because of the tax relief offered on them.
My issue is that the tax relief is being abused by people who buy the houses and claim they live in them to get the tax relief and then rent them out on the sly. I have no problem with people buying houses as an investment and getting the appropriate tax relief on them ... but it annoys me when people abuse the system.

Have you considered reporting them to Revenue?
Or even better why not get in touch with a local paper and see if they will do a bit of digging and do a story. This is the sort of thing the RTE would pick up on.

Re: Local Needs ???

Carpenter said:

I live in a modest 4 bed detached house in a housing estate,

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So you didn't opt for the semi-D in the estate or possibly the terraced house? (I am presuming that like most estates it has at least semi-D's and detached houses.)
Preferred the slightly bigger detached house, possibly, or more land surrounding your house?

Our new house is 1/2 mile from a smallish village in Leitrim. There have been about 200 new houses built in estates in the last 2 years. In an area which was more than decimated by emigration from the 50s right up to the early 90s, the village was slowly dying. The people moving in are bringing an injection of new blood, new money and new life. Already new shops are opening in the village to service their needs. Most of them are already living and working within a 15 mile radius although some are foreigners. This too I see as a good thing - diversity can only add to the colour of the place. Their children will be the new locals and will, I hope, keep the village thriving into the 22nd century.

Yes, and they are built right on the banks of the Shannon which was flooded for nearly a week last year. What will happen when this occurs again, which it surely will. As I pass through Leitrim Town every day I look to see if the house right at the edge of the water is OK, with the water rising it's only a matter of time. I dont know how the developer got planning permission.