Westport councillors angered at absence of Master Plan for Westport Quay

THE absence of a Master Plan for the Quay area of Westport from the Draft Westport Local Area Plan was heavily criticised by local councillors.

The Roman Island area of the Quay in Westport has been zoned for marine based tourism and recreation in the new Draft Westport Local Area Plan with proposals for a loop walk and urban beach at the location.

However, local councillors expressed their anger that a Master Plan for the Quay has not been included with officials informing them that the objective is to draw up a Master Plan within the lifetime of the local area plan.

Catherine McConnell, Director of Services with responsibility for planning explained that a Master Plan will cost €60,000 to draw up and claimed that there was no point in doing this until the Local Area Plan is in place.

“There is an objective in the draft plan that we would as a matter of urgency prepare a Master Plan. But a Master Plan for the Quay required specialists in terms of the design around water based tourism and what would be appropriate. What we have done is set the seeds so it is an objective of the plan that the Master Plan is a key objective to deliver within the lifetime of the plan. We hope that when the plan is adopted it will become one of the first things that we would put down on our work schedule to get that master plan done. It is quite a specialist role in the same way specialists were brought in to do the Master Plan for Westport House,” she said.

Despite these reassurances, the Westport-based councillors said that without a Master Plan no development can take place around Roman Island.

“We were told by ye that nothing could be done in the Quay until the Master Plan is done,” said Cllr Christy Hyland.

“Now you are asking us to adopt the Local Area Plan and the Quay is left hanging out. You said nothing major could be done at the Quay because the Master Plan is not done and I am baffled.

Why don't we have a Master Plan for the Quay in conjunction with the Local Area Plan,” the Independent councillor asked.

Cllr Hyland added that he received advice from a retired planner that the Westport Local Area Plan should not be adopted without a Master Plan for the Quay.

Fine Gael councillor Peter Flynn was also critical of the officials response and attitude saying that he finds it hard to trust the officials when they say the Master Plan will be done.

“The first thing the Chief Executive will say to us is we have no money to do a Master Plan and it is not on my list of priorities. That is as sure as night follows day that is what is going to happen. There is no way we can leave this process without ensuring we have the Quay included in the same level of detail we have for the town.

“I cannot leave this setting signing off for this document without a proper scope-down plan for Westport Quay which we can all rely upon for the next six years and not come in and say we have no money to do a plan. The goalposts keep moving. I trusted in you three years ago when you said it would be part of the Local Area Plan and now it's not and it is hard to have trust,” he told Ms McConnell.

Fianna Fáil councillor Brendan Mulroy told the meeting that the council do not own the land around Roman Island and even if the land is zoned, they would not be able to do work on it.

“Why put a walkway around it which gives people false hope when we don't own the land. The walkway around gives an opinion it will go in tomorrow if we zone land but we don't even own it,” he said.

Mr Padraig Walsh, the head of the municipal district said the current owner was not disposed to selling the land to create a walkway at the moment in time. In response, Cllr Mulroy said that the council should consider putting a compulsory purchase order on the land.

Ms McConnell said the council do not need to own the land for it to be zoned but stated that the objective will be to draw up a Master Plan which will go into greater detail of what is needed at the Quay.