Mayo has capacity to deliver revised housing targets claims Council official

A SENIOR Executive in Mayo County Council says she believes that Mayo will have enough land zoned for housing to deliver any new housing targets to be set down by the Government.

The Government recently approved the revised National Planning Framework which will set out how the country’s housing growth is managed from now until 2040. It is expected that as a result of the revised National Planning Framework, the housing target for towns in Mayo will also be revised upwards which may need for the local area plans for the three towns to be amended.

The three local area plans were developed by Mayo County Council planners and councillors in 2023 and 2024 but before they were approved the draft plans had to be amended as the Planning Regulator found that too much land was zoned for housing.

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Speaking at the monthly meeting of Ballina Municipal District, Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Loftus said that the councillors and planners worked hard on their local area plan and questioned the Government's thinking of having to resubmit new plans.

“We worked hard and they [Planning Regulator] turned down what we had proposed and they wanted us to look at the plan for more houses. It is an awful waste of time after all the work we did.

“Here we are waiting for houses and crying out for houses in Mayo and my question is why did they not agree with our plan at the time. We did a lot of work and the staff and the councillors in fairness put forward a plan that I thought was very good and now we are being told it will have to be done again. I question a lot of things the Government is doing at the moment and that is one of them,” he said.

Cllr Loftus made his comments after local councillors approved Part 8 planning for the development of 12 dwelling units at the Meadows estate at Ardnaree in Ballina.

Cllr Annie May Reape welcomed the revised National Planning Framework saying more housing targets is what councillors have been campaigning for. However, Cllr Loftus asked if the council should admit the previous local area plan which was rejected saying he believed it was a 'good submission'.

In response, Catherine McConnell, Director of Services with responsibility for planning admitted that the officials still do not know what the revised National Planning Framework will mean for new housing targets in Mayo but feels they have the work done to take advantage of any new targets.

“We will probably be okay in terms of our quantum of zoned land and what we have in strategic reserve [land] and our ability to activate that or let development move onto that is probably our saving grace.

“It is premature at this point in time until we see the National Planning Framework and what the targets are to know what we have to do. In any case we will be trying to focus our new housing development onto the areas that are already zoned and are strategically reserved. They are well located on serviced land which have huge capacity to deliver in excess of what we need over the next five years,” she observed.