Justice with a View
The storm-in-a-teacup media controversy over Michael McDowell’s problems with planning permission relating to his new holiday home in Roscommon remind me of something I’ve been meaning to come back in relation to the issue of one-off housing.
The violations of McDowell’s planning permission primarily relate to aesthetic issues regarding the appearance of the house. And while I am strongly opposed to one-off housing in principle I cannot accept that the appearance of a house is any justification for denying planning permission. It smacks of snobbery and a law dictated by so-called good taste, and leads me to question the motives of those who suppport it.
My objections are based on the lack of social and economic viability and sustainability of one-off developments. Objections made relating to the appearance of one-off houses seem to come either from a group who regard rural Ireland as some kind of safari park where they go walking at the weekends or else from a group who have got their own piece of rural paradise and don’t want to let anyone else spoil the view.
These objections distract from the real problems that one-off housing brings to rural communities and make easy strawmen for local gombeen councillors eager to use the simmering rural resentment against the ‘green welly crowd’ to avoid taking responsibility for anything.
(The lazy journalism relating to the McDowell’s planning permission problems also give the Minister for Justice a little more ammunition in his bid to introduce the ill thought-out press council. Nice one lads.)
Mark Waters marked time at 8:26 pm on October 18th, 2004 .
