COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
HEADED ITEM NO. 9 (a)
(a) Pre-Plan Consultation Report
REPORT:
Newcastle Local Area Plan Pre-Plan Consultation
1. Consultation Process
Section 20(1) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) states that:
“A planning authority shall take whatever steps it considers necessary to consult the Minister and the public before preparing, amending or revoking a local area plan including consultations with any local residents, public sector agencies, non governmental agencies, local community groups and commercial and business interests within the area.”
Within this context, the Council embarked on a programme of pre-plan consultation in preparation for a draft Local Area Plan for Newcastle Village. The pre-plan consultation took place over a six week period between Monday the 16th of January 2012 and Friday the 24th of February 2012 and involved the following:
- Notification of the intention to prepare a draft local area plan for Newcastle and to carry out pre-draft consultation was advertised in the Clondalkin Gazette (see Appendix B), which included an invitation for submissions/observations.
- Letters that provided further notification of pre-draft consultation and an invitation for submissions/observations were sent with information leaflets to (inter alia) the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government; all South Dublin County Council Elected Members; public sector agencies; non governmental agencies; and a variety of stakeholders including a local residents’ group, local community groups and commercial and business interests within the area of Newcastle.
- Information on the pre-plan consultation together with an invitation for submissions/observations and a copy of the information leaflet were placed on the South Dublin County Council website.
- Four public information days were held and attended by Council staff in St. Finian’s Community Hall, Main Street, Newcastle and information leaflets were made available and distributed to members of the public. Some 103 people met with the Council staff at St. Finian’s Hall. These public information days were held on:
- Monday the 30th of January 2012, 1 – 4pm
- Thursday the 2nd of February 2012, 4 – 7pm
- Monday the 6th of February 2012, 4 – 7pm
- Thursday the 9th of February 2012, 1 – 4pm
- Posters that provided further public consultation notification and details of the public information days were placed in local businesses in Newcastle for the entire duration of the pre-plan consultation period. These local businesses included Lett’s Butchers; The Village Store; The Roma Take Away; Cocoon Crèche and Rocking Horse Crèche. The information leaflet was also displayed on St. Finian’s National School website and a hard copy was placed on the front notice board in the school.
- Information boards on the pre-plan consultation were displayed in County Hall Tallaght, Clondalkin Civic Offices, County Library Tallaght and in St. Finian’s Community Hall Newcastle for the entire duration of the pre-plan consultation period.
- Council staff were made available to answer queries at County Hall Tallaght every Wednesday afternoon during the pre-plan consultation period. Notification of this and direct contact information for making additional queries during the consultation period was provided on the information leaflets distributed to members of the public and stakeholders.
2. Outcome of the Pre Plan Consultation Process
A total of 55 written submissions were received during the pre-plan consultation period. An additional 3 submissions were received after the public consultation deadline thus giving a total of 58 submissions. Within the context that the pre-plan consultation was a non-statutory stage of the preparation of the Local Area Plan, it was decided that the late submissions should be considered.
A list of all the persons/bodies that made the submissions is provided under Table 3.1 in Section 3 of this Manager’s report.
All 58 submissions were read, analysed, and summarised. A total of 294 issues were identified during this process. Many of the issues raised were interrelated and were categorised under 23 main category headings in the interest of clarity before being further categorised under a series of sub-headings. Information on the main category headings and the number of times that issues relating to each category heading were raised is detailed under Table 1 below.
A full summary and categorisation (including sub categorisation) of the issues raised is provided in the Manager’s Report.
In terms of the issues that were raised most frequently, the highest number (40 times/13.6% of issues raised) related to Community Facilities in terms of the provision of a community centre, open space/parks, outdoor recreational facilities and playgrounds.
The second highest proportion of issues raised (38 times/ 12.9% of issues raised) related to Movement in terms of providing for accessibility, a new road/by-pass, public transport, walking and cycling etc.
The third highest proportion of issues raised (27 times/9.2% of issues raised) related to Educational Facilties in terms of the provision of primary school and secondary school facilities.
Other issues that featured prominently related to Car Parking (24 times/8.1%) in terms of provision throughout the village in general, provision at the western side of the village and provision at the eastern/graveyard side of the village; Streets/Roads (21 times/7.1%) in terms of design, lighting, traffic and speed limits; Dereliction (22 times/7.5%) in terms of unfinished estates, derelict buildings and hoarding etc.; and Heritage (20 times/6.8%) in terms of protecting and utilising archaeological features, biodiversity, burgage plots, hedgerow/field boundaries, the Grand Canal, protected structures, rivers and streams.
Table 1: Breakdown of Issues Raised According to Main Category Heading
| Main Category Heading | No. of Times Issue Raised | % of Total | |
| 1 | 2003 Local Area Plan | 7 | 2.4% |
| 2 | Anti-social behaviour and crime | 3 | 1.0% |
| 3 | Car parking | 24 | 8.2% |
| 4 | Community Facilities | 40 | 13.6% |
| 5 | Derelict Sites/buildings, Unfinished Estates/Hoarding/Landownership | 22 | 7.5% |
| 6 | Detailed Issues and Issues of Maintenance | 20 | 6.8% |
| 7 | Development | 15 | 5.1% |
| 8 | Educational Facilities | 27 | 9.2% |
| 9 | Environmental Assessment | 2 | 0.7% |
| 10 | Environmental, Services and Resources | 6 | 2.0% |
| 11 | Green Infrastructure | 1 | 0.3% |
| 12 | Guidelines | 2 | 0.7% |
| 13 | Heritage Issues | 20 | 6.8% |
| 14 | Infrastructure | 2 | 0.7% |
| 15 | Local Business Facilities | 2 | 0.7% |
| 16 | Movement | 38 | 12.9% |
| 17 | Phasing | 4 | 1.4% |
| 18 | Previous planning decisions | 6 | 2.0% |
| 19 | Streets/Road | 21 | 7.1% |
| 20 | Tourism | 2 | 0.7% |
| 21 | Village Centre | 18 | 6.1% |
| 22 | Village Layout/Character | 5 | 1.7% |
| 23 | Zoning of Lands | 7 | 2.4% |
| Total | 294 |