Westport local area plan amended to facilitate single houses for 'townies'

WESTPORT councillors have amended their local area plan to include an objective that planning permission should be given for one off houses for the sons and daughters of 'townies'.

A special meeting of the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District took place on Friday morning where local councillors agreed to make amendments to the Draft Westport Local Area Plan 2024-2030.

Among the amendments agreed by the councillors was to include an objective to facilitate single houses for 'people with a genuine housing need, sons and daughters of long-term Westport town residents or any individuals in permanent employment' living within the boundary of the local area plan.

Fine Gael councillor Peter Flynn proposed the amendment telling the meeting that young Westport people cannot afford to buy in Westport and they should be given the opportunity to build their own home.

“One of the things which has been a bugbear for a lot of people in the Westport area over the last number of years has been the difficulty in getting planning on the edge of town. We are conscious of the fact that more and more people are moving into Westport having sold a house in Dublin or London or wherever and it is not a level playing field for young local people trying to establish themselves in Westport.

“We will propose an objective very similar to the rural planning guidelines but is one of the townies if you like. For too long the townies have been disadvantaged in the way planning is developed right around the country,” he explained.

Cllr Flynn added that this objective should be facilitated for people with 'fully serviced non-tier one and tier two land within the local area plan'.

“The reality is not everyone wants to live in an estate or can afford to live in an estate in Westport,” he added.

“The starting price is now €450,000 for a house in Westport town and it is out of the reach of the vast majority of local people.

“There is nothing radical in it and we are highlighting the fact that the land has to be fully serviced. We are giving people that may only be able to put up the shell of a house but at least they can do that because people do not have €450,000 to buy a fully completed house,” he said.

The proposal was seconded by Cllr Brendan Mulroy and supported by the four councillors in the Westport Electoral Area.

Independent councillor John O'Malley told the meeting that young people in Westport were being priced out of housing and the plan has to support local people who want to live locally.

“Young people around Westport are at an awful disadvantage because planning is difficult and the houses are such a price. What we really need is to be able to give them more planning and more land for housing so the price of houses will come down. Local people are leaving and the strangers are coming in,” he commented

Cllr Christy Hyland said a Western Development Commission report stated that the west of Ireland is emerging as an attractive destination for remote workers and planners have to take this into account for the future.

“People want to get out of the smog filled city of Dublin and relocate to a beautiful town like Westport. We are in a changing world and while Covid brought a lot of terrible things to us it did bring remote working right to the top of the agenda. They want to relocate to a nice place like Westport so planners have to take note of that moving forward,” he added.

The councillors also amended the draft plan to extend the town boundary to the Belclare junction with this land to be zoned as agriculture land. They also agreed to zone sites at Horkan's Hill and along the West Road for new housing but changed the zoning of the playing field at Springfield from residential to recreational.

The councillors outlined their reasons for making the changes and stated that they have done so in a reasonable manner.

The amended plan will be prepared by the council planners to be put on public display at a later date for four weeks to allow the public as well as the Office of the Planning Regulator to make submissions on the amendments.