Meath County Council have issued draft County Development Plan.  Section 9: Rural Development Strategy highlights the changes they hope to implement in Rural Meath.

In my opinion, this County Development Plan has no regard for rural communities or its residents.  If this plan is granted by the Councillors it will mean that one off houses been built in rural areas will be a thing of the past, unless you are actively farming 25 acres or more of land.  Otherwise there will be a small area of land, surrounding church / school etc,  where they will allow people with local needs to build.

These changes will have numerous implications - some of which I have listed below:

 1.      School Development: The draft plan eliminates any possibility of development of rural schools.  Areas of land surrounding schools have been designated for limited residential development therefore leaving no room for necessary expansion or, indeed in a lot of areas, adequate facilities. 

2.     Care of Elderly / Home Care: The draft plan will mean that younger generations will have no choice other than to live in urban areas, whether villages / towns etc, therefore leaving no family members living close to their homesteads to be available to provide necessary care to elderly family members.  This is already an area in complete crisis as our government is unable to provide necessary care to these people which will in turn only get drastically worse if younger generations are not in the locality to help.

3. Small & Medium Enterprises: The draft plan will mean that the future of these enterprises, whether already in business or future businesses, will not be a viable option.  Many rural families have both commenced businesses and supported rural businesses for centuries.

4. Farming Life: Not every type of farming lifestyle requires 25 acres.  The draft plan is completely alienating small rural farmers and only benefits big scale farmers by allowing them to build a residence on their land.  The draft plan will leave small farmers with land that is worthless and with no younger generations to continue in an inherent lifestyle that has been in the one family for many previous generations

5. Financial: The draft plan will end up costing any younger generation from a rural background substantially more than is required in order to get on the property ladder.  This is another area that is in crisis presently and our younger generations are finding it impossible to get on the property ladder.  Rural families who own land, whether in small holding or large holding, should be entitled to use this land to build a residence for their younger generations to come.   Otherwise younger generations from rural families will never own their own residence.  The cost of renting limited properties in the urban areas that rural generations are been forced to live in will be at a premium, which will not be affordable and therefore lead to even more young families struggling and the possibility of ending up homeless.

6. Unsocial Behaviour & Crime: The draft plan forces all future rural families will live in urban areas.  These built up areas have much higher rates of unsocial behaviour and crime levels in comparison to rural areas which leaves these areas harder to police, as can be seen in many suburbs of Dublin.

7. Rural families have, for generations, cared for and looked after “Rural Ireland” - a very intricate part of our Irish heritage which we are known the world over for.  This draft plan is now prioritising the over-development of towns and villages at the expense of rural families.

8. Mental Well Being: This draft plan has no consideration for the mental well being of any rural resident, who has resided in rural areas for numerous years & possibly their whole lifetime, and how their mental health can be affected by this forcing them to move to and live in urban areas.  Again, this is another area of our current health system that is in complete crisis, yet this plan may exacerbate the problem further.

9. GAA & Local Clubs/Societies: This plan will cause the disintegration of all local clubs & societies due to future generations all living in urban areas.

I need your help to stop this.  If Meath County Council continue with this plan other County Councils will follow suit.

If you agree with me and want to support this submission / observation / objection to the draft County Development Plan PLEASE SIGN.